We all know that feeling of sudden panic when, having posted a carefully crafted Facebook status update, a few minutes later, you notice an embarrassing "teh" or "yuo" marring your masterpiece. Do you delete? Correct it in the comments? Hope no one notices? Well, now you can just edit it out.
Facebook confirmed to NBC in an email that it is rolling out the new editing function to its Web interface and mobile apps — starting first with Android, but soon on iOS as well. If you've made a mistake or thought of a better way to put something in a post or comment, just open up the little pulldown menu on the right and select "Edit."
That's really all there is to it. But you might very well ask, what took so long to add this function?
It's not actually difficult to do on Facebook's end, but think about how it might be abused by users. Write a post that dozens of people "like," then edit the content so it looks like all your friends like something terrible (or hilarious).
To that end, every edited post will indicate that it has been changed, and any user who can see the post will be able to see the edit history. That should help keep abuse to a minimum.
If you use Facebook on the Web, you should already have access to the editing function. The latest version of Facebook on Android claims to have the feature, but doesn't show up in practice just yet. iPhone and iPad users will be able to join the party as soon as Facebook pushes out a new version for iOS.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
