You can now add a GIF, a video, or photos to retweets. You could previously only add a written comment, with no option to add media. This is a small-but-important change Twitter users have been asking for for some time. However, it's no Edit button.

How to Add a GIF, Video, or Photos to a Retweet

Until now, when retweeting someone else's tweet, you have only been able to add written commentary. The GIF and photos/video icons were faded and not available. However, Twitter has now added the ability to add a GIF, video, or photos to a retweet.

All you need to do is click on the "Retweet" icon under a tweet. Then, select "Retweet with comment". Now, as well as being able to add your own thoughts in the form of words, you can add a GIF, a video, or photos which sum up your feelings on the tweet.

You may be wondering why this has taken Twitter so long to implement. Twitter claims it was quite a challenge to ensure the result wasn't a mess. And the solution was to indent any media attached to the tweet being retweeted (though not on desktop).

Brands have already started using this feature to great effect, and we expect ordinary users to start doing so as well. After all, GIFs in particular offer an easy way to add commentary to a tweet which you're then retweeting to your own followers.

What We Really Want Is the Ability to Edit Tweets

While being able to add a GIF to a retweet is neat, it's not the feature most Twitter users are demanding. Since Twitter was launched in 2006, people have wanted the ability to edit their tweets. And yet we are still waiting for that to become a reality.

In January 2017, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey stated that the company was "thinking a lot about" giving users the option to edit their tweets. And then in February 2019, Dorsey told Joe Rogan that an Edit button is still on the to-do list. So it may happen one day.

Image Credit: Denis Vahrushev/Flickr