Twitter will, in the not too distant future, let you edit Tweets . That news, which arrived a few days ago, was momentous enough, but felt more like the shocking aftertaste you get from hard candy with a sour middle – that's because we were still digesting the one-two-punch news of Elon Musk buying 10% interest in the company and quickly joining Twitter's board.
This was a lot to take in.
Understand that I've been using the social network for 15 years. It's only been around for 16 years. Through all the changes, including the launch of a mobile app, the introduction of images, retweets, mentions and threads, doubling the lengths of tweets and the launch of a subscription service, there has never been a week like this.
Twitter has been a sort of de facto record of the early 21st century, with billions of posts, capturing tiny events and big moments, traveling around the world faster than a SpaceX rocket can escape the Earth's gravity.
The only way to change that record has been to delete it; or rather, delete tweets. If you think of Twitter as a personal publishing system (we used to call it a micro-blogging platform), this makes sense. Websites have always given us the ability to add, edit, and remove content. Media sites regularly delete vast quantities of material, mostly to fix search engine optimization issues.
On Twitter, though, most of us never delete our tweets. I do it when there's an embarrassing, egregious error – a wrong or broken link, or a massive typo. Even then, there are times when I lose control of the tweet – it goes a little viral – and removing it might upset hundreds or thousands of people who liked or shared it.
So I leave it, and dream, once again, of the edit button.
I should be happy for Twitter and myself.
It just got a huge cash infusion and vote of confidence from a new part-owner (and from the stock market, which liked the news), and I have confirmation that, after years of pleading, I will in the not-too-distant future, be able to edit my Tweets.
So why am I so anxious?
First, there's the Elon Musk factor.
I've been an avid Musk watcher for years. I first interviewed him in 2012 and eventually created a short-lived, daily Musk-watching podcast called 33 Million Miles to Mars . I understand the guy, and think nothing better captured his genius and surprisingly emotional personality than this 2017 Rolling Stone profile .
It's also pretty easy to see Musk's personality on Twitter , a platform he loves and hates in equal measure. He's been on it for years, and often uses it as his visible ID (and ego), letting loose with silliness, abrasiveness, pique, and insight. I've had, on Twitter a few really interesting conversations with him about Tesla's technology .
Musk cares about Twitter, but he also seems inclined to burn it to the ground; it's clear that he has no intention of being a silent partner. Former CEO and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey admitted as much when he called the current Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal and Musk "a team."
Viewed as an agent of change, Musk's arrival on the Twitter board could be welcomed with excitement. What will he inspire? What will he demand? What might he carelessly share about Twitter's future plans on Twitter?
Adding Musk to the board is not like bringing on anyone else. He is one of the most recognizable people in the world and a polarizing figure. For every fan of his triumphs in the EV and space sector, there are people who believe him a dangerous, self-aggrandizing showboat. My take is that Musk is a true genius (he taught himself rocket science) with an underdeveloped emotional core.
Shortly after announcing his stock buy, and true to form, Musk took to Twitter and ran a poll on whether Twitter should introduce editable Tweets. More than four million people voted, with 73% saying yes (or "yse" as his tweet comically put it).
Knowing Musk as I do, I was still processing his big move when Twitter shocked me, and its 300 million-plus other devoted Twitter users, with news that it's currently working on editable tweets . The company insisted that it had been working on the feature for months prior to Musk joining the board.
Sure. Okay.
Instead of being thrilled, though, I felt a new wave of anxiety. Saying "editable tweets" is one thing – implementing the feature in a way that doesn't destabilize Twitter to the point of uselessness is another.
I immediately wondered if I'd be using it to go back and fix silly errors, or a structural problem on my single most viral tweet . I'm not jumping to do it, because the more I think about editing tweets, the more I realize it's not about rewriting history (I pray it's not); it's about fixing of-the-moment errors. Silly things like typos, and bigger things like where you angry-tweet one minute, and realize five minutes later that you can tone it down and not incite a Twitter riot.
My concern meter dialed back a bit after Jay Sullivan, Twitter's Head of Consumer Product, offered a few more details about how Twitter might approach the biggest change to its platform in a decade.
He noted that Twitter knows people want to fix "(sometimes embarrassing) mistakes, typos and hot takes in the moment," but more crucially added , "Without things like time limits, controls, and transparency about what has been edited, Edit could be misused to alter the record of the public conversation. Protecting the integrity of that public conversation is our top priority when we approach this work."
Personally, I hope this means that I won't be able to go back five years and tweak my viral tweet, that we'll have change histories, and that historically significant Tweets can't be altered at any time. That last point is a bigger ask, I know, and may relate to who is tweeting. Public figures might be stuck with policy tweets, and only be able to access the editable tweet feature in the first 10 minutes after posting. Unverified and non-public figures might be given more time.
This would be reasonable, but even as I write this, I feel Musk's stare. He has thoughts on this, I'm sure, and could push for more extensive and free-wheeling editable tweet settings, especially some that could help him go back and change everything and anything in his Twitter timeline.
Still, Musk is also a savvy businessman, and could not have built and maintained multiple businesses, especially the successful Tesla and SpaceX, without having exercised some restraint. I have to believe that Musk will show restraint here; otherwise... well, I'll just leave a Musk recent tweet right here.
Pokémon Go is getting a change that fans have been demanding for years
Pokémon Go’s Mega Evolutions, the system through which you can temporarily upgrade your fully evolved pocket monsters, looks to be getting a major do-over, changing the stilted process for the better.
A recent datamine by backend explorers PokeMiners suggests Pokémon Go will be overhauling Mega Evolutions with a new leveling system in an upcoming update (thanks, Eurogamer ). It suggests that you’ll soon be able to upgrade the temporary evolutions of your pokémon through a series of tiers, unlocking extra perks including additional XP, reduced ability cooldowns, and extra candy.
The datamine also revealed a Free Mega Evolution Icon, which suggests you’ll occasionally be able to upgrade pokémon to a new evolutionary tier without cost.
Necessary changes
Pokémon Go’s Mega Evolution system has been something of a sticking point for fans of the mobile game since the mechanic was added back in 2020. Currently, players need to collect enough Mega Energy to activate one of the temporary evolutions, earning the consumable resource by taking on specific Pokémon in Raid Battles.
Not only do those raids require you to find other players to join up with, but they also earn you notably little Mega Energy. You’ll need to complete multiple raids to get your hands on enough of the finicky resource to upgrade your pokémon. You can also earn Mega Energy by walking your Buddy Pokémon, but only after you’ve previously evolved them through raids.
On top of that, the Mega Evolutions only last for a few hours, leading some players to conclude they’re not worth the hassle.
The Free Mega Evolution Icons mentioned in the datamine suggest it will soon be easier to evolve pokémon without resorting to grinding raids. Further, a level system may make the benefits of such mega evolutions more permanent, and the rewards for achieving them more worthwhile.
Remember, these changes haven’t been officially announced or confirmed by Pokémon Go developer Niantic, and the exact tweaks may differ from what’s presented here. But the datamine does suggest a revamp to the much-maligned mechanic is on the way, which will be welcome news to Pokémon Go fans disappointed with the current system.
We can expect more details of the new system to be revealed in the coming weeks, through future datamines and official announcements.
Android 13, Wear OS, Pixel 6a and more: what we expect from Google IO 2022
The annual Google IO event has been confirmed for 2022 - this year, it'll take place between May 11 and 12, with a big keynote conference kicking it off on that first date.
This was confirmed by the company's CEO Sundar Pichai, who posted on Twitter to confirm that the company's big yearly event would return on those dates - and at a physical location too, showing an interesting recommitment to physical events after the pandemic.
Nw, before you roll your eyes and think 'this is too techy, I don't care' - well, there's a reason this might be interesting to you.
You see, while Google IO is mainly a developer event, in the same vein as Apple's WWDC, we also sometimes see tech from the company unveiled at the event. So here's a quick sizzle through the key things we're hoping for.
Android 13
Google almost always shows off its next Android update at IO - this year, that's Android 13 .
We know a little bit about this update - a small beta brought lots of privacy features , code pointed to the ability to toggle the brightness of the phone's flashlight (though you'll need a device with hardware that facilitates this) and Google has teased the ability to compress apps you don't use much , saving you from deleting them.
Those are cool features but they're not exactly flagship ones, so we're hoping Google has something big up its sleeve for its unluckily-numbered next update.
Wear OS
Google IO is typically a software-focused event, but it generally didn't talk about Wear OS, its smartwatch operating system...
... until 2021, when Wear OS 3 was unveiled, and it was the biggest shake-up to the company's smartwatch software in years. It was designed alongside Samsung, but more companies were set to use the software for their wearables too.
It's been a bit of a quieter year for Wear OS than we expected, as not as many companies adopted the new system as we (and likely Google) would have liked. But with the backing of Samsung, we don't think Google will forget about its software - hopefully, we'll see new features for it that make it more tempting for manufacturers.
Google Pixel 6a
There's an outside chance that we'll see the Google Pixel 6a - the company has previously unveiled its affordable A series of gadgets at Google IO before, though it hasn't for a few years.
This would be an inexpensive take on the Pixel 6 , designed for people whose budgets don't have space for super-pricey Android phones.
If the Pixel 6a doesn't appear, we could still see other A-series devices like earbuds, as they've shown up recently at IO too.