diff --git a/AUTHORS b/AUTHORS
index dee73514a..a68b548d3 100644
--- a/AUTHORS
+++ b/AUTHORS
@@ -120,6 +120,7 @@ Eduardo Schettino
 Eli Boyarski
 Elizaveta Shashkova
 Éloi Rivard
+Emmeline Wetzel
 Endre Galaczi
 Eric Hunsberger
 Eric Liu
@@ -219,6 +220,7 @@ Loic Esteve
 Lukas Bednar
 Luke Murphy
 Maciek Fijalkowski
+Madeline Thai-Tang
 Maho
 Maik Figura
 Mandeep Bhutani
diff --git a/changelog/10704.improvement.rst b/changelog/10704.improvement.rst
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..657fdfce6
--- /dev/null
+++ b/changelog/10704.improvement.rst
@@ -0,0 +1 @@
+Changed the diff explanation for string comparison assertions when there is a tab in the string to show ``\t`` instead of ``    ``
diff --git a/src/_pytest/assertion/util.py b/src/_pytest/assertion/util.py
index 672d858a2..514bc8e17 100644
--- a/src/_pytest/assertion/util.py
+++ b/src/_pytest/assertion/util.py
@@ -290,10 +290,9 @@ def _diff_text(left: str, right: str, verbose: int = 0) -> List[str]:
         for line in ndiff(right.splitlines(keepends), left.splitlines(keepends))
     ]
     for i in range(len(explanation)):
-        explanation[i] = explanation[i].replace("+     ", "+ \t")
-        explanation[i] = explanation[i].replace("    ", "\t")
-    print("**********************LOOK HERE***********************")
-    print(explanation)
+        if "?    " not in explanation[i]:  # dont replace diff message tab
+            explanation[i] = explanation[i].replace("+     ", "+ \t")
+            explanation[i] = explanation[i].replace("    ", "\t")
     return explanation