Twitter is trialing an editing feature that allows users to change tweets up to 30 minutes after they are published – but lets people view prior versions.

The social media company said tweets can be edited “a few times” in the half hour.

The tweets will appear with an icon, timestamp and label to make clear that the original post has been modified. Tapping the label will take viewers to an edit history, which will include past versions of the tweet.

“The time limit and version history play an important role here. They help protect the integrity of the conversation and create a publicly accessible record of what was said,” the company said.

The feature is undergoing internal testing and will be expanded to subscribers to Twitter’s Blue service later this month. However, that test will be limited to one country at first, Twitter said.

Twitter Blue is available in the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand and offers services such as an “undo” function which gives users a 60-second window to amend a sent tweet before it appears publicly.

In the blog post, Twitter said an edit button was the platform’s most requested feature from its nearly 238 million users. The company said users should view the trial feature as “a short period of time to do things like fix typos, add missed tags and more”.

“We’re hoping that, with the availability of edit tweet, tweeting will feel more approachable and less stressful. You should be able to participate in the conversation in a way that makes sense to you, and we’ll keep working on ways that make it feel effortless to do just that,” said the company.

Twitter announced in April that it was working on an edit button, soon after Elon Musk had held a poll on the subject, although it did not supply much detail.

At the time Twitter said it had been working on the button long before the intervention by Musk, who subsequently agreed to buy the business for $44bn (£38bn) but is now trying to exit the deal.