Earlier, users who posted something they wished they had not done it — and had a very limited time window to edit a comment — either because they wish they had said it differently, misspelled a word or simply thought of a funnier way to say it — had to delete the comment and start over.
Now, this option becomes a permanent fixture without a time limit. From now onwards, Facebook is allowing users to return back and edit any comments you have made on posts on the social media network, whether they are from today or last month. When you hover over the top-right corner of your comment, you will now see an option called “Edit or Delete”.
“This is especially useful if you have made a typo within your comment but already received some likes,” a Facebook spokeswoman said in a comment. “Now you would not have to delete the comment entirely, just edit it.”
So, if you used the wrong form of “their” or mis-spelled your friend’s name in a comment that sparked an otherwise interesting discussion among friends, just edit the mistake and keep the conversation going.
Sadly though, if someone comments on your post first, then you are out of luck. You can not edit after someone has commented.
Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research, said the new feature may seem small, but it will be helpful to a lot of people.
“People react too quickly and post things without thinking,” he said. “This lets people do that, but then think about it and change it. It is about being able to self-edit.”
So henceforth, when you click Edit, you will be allowed to make changes to the comment, add or delete words and so on. This is much more useful than the temporary editing capabilities you had so far, as it enables you to go back through your timeline and edit any comments you made. It is also more useful than deleting a comment altogether and then reposting it, which would otherwise prompt a notification for those involved in the thread.
Besides, those who might change the entire meaning of their comment, thereby making subsequent comments look nonsensical, users will be able to click to see the unedited version as well.
“Anyone who can see the comment will also be able to see the edited history,” the Facebook spokeswoman said. “If you do not want to show past versions, you can just delete it and re-comment as you would have before this feature.”
The feature did not appear to be live on many Facebook account yet, but is apparently rolling out now.
However, it is still vague whether comment editing will be available on Facebook’s mobile comments plug-in either, which is used by many publishers. This would be an ideal place to allow this function, given that submissions from smartphones can be plagued by autocorrect mistakes.