Facebook Finally Lets You Edit Posts

If autocorrect has ever ruined your Facebook post, your prayers have been answered. Facebook introduced the ability to edit status updates starting Thursday.

The latest update for the Android Facebook app adds the ability to 'edit your posts and comments and tap to see all your changes.' However, the editing has not been enabled on any of the Android devices we experimented with.

The editing feature will roll out to Facebook users on the web and Android devices over the next day, Facebook confirmed to Mashable. The eiting feature is not included in the latest iOS app, but will likely get pushed out in the next update. Users will see the option to 'Edit Post' when they click on the drop-down arrow in the top-right corner of a post.

Editing posts was potentially dicey territory for Facebook, since the it brings the danger of a bait-and-switch with followers. A user could conceivably write, 'Who likes ice cream?' and get hundreds of Likes and affirming comments, then edit the post to read, 'Who wants to beat up some cats?'

Facebook addresses this issue by marking the post as edited and letting users access the history of any edited post with a click. Google+, which has let users edit posts for some time, works in a similar fashion.

Facebook has been slowly granting users more editing capabilities over their content. Users can edit photo captions (that is, status updates with a photo attached) and the ability to edit comments arrived a few months ago. Page editors already have the ability to edit posts on their pages.

It's likely Facebook examined all the potential abuses and concluded the risk in letting users alter posts was minimal. It makes sense: Any user who would mislead followers or friends with a post they intend to maliciously edit would likely soon find themselves with few followers or friends of any value.

For journalists on Facebook, the value of editing posts is even greater. As Mashable's Emily Banks has argued, being able to edit a post in a transparent fashion makes Facebook posts more like articles on a website, and now reporters will be able to make corrections without deleting entire updates and losing conversation threads.

What's your take on editing posts: Yea or nay? Have your say in the comments.

Image: Juan Mabromata/AFP/Getty Images