Twitter may soon be launching a premium tier service by the name of Twitter Blue, offering users features inaccessible in the vanilla interface for a monthly sum.
Premium services are sort of becoming a norm for online media platforms, perhaps dating back to YouTube's introduced of YouTube Red. Having said that, YouTube Red also received such unabashed online criticism and ridicule, followed by a failure to ever reach significantly successful numbers that it was then rebranded to YouTube Originals. Twitter Blue is definitely taking some direct inspiration from the idea, as can be surmised from a superficial glance. The nomenclature, for one (YouTube's logo is red, Twitter's is blue) is a dead giveaway. Then there's the promise of features that only this "elite" class of the userbase can enjoy. YouTube Originals offers exclusively generated content, the ability to listen to videos with your phone closed, no advertisements and the like.
So, how did this all start? In July of 2020, Twitter launched a survey, asking its userbase what pay-to-access features they'd like on the platform, accompanied by price ranges for some other potential tools as well. This was done as a method of gauging both audience reaction, while also digging for some ideas in establishing Twitter Blue. While ultimately user suggestions and feedback was not delved into, which is honestly a wise choice, the stage was set for work to begin. And apparently, as reported by researcher Jane Manchun Wong, that work is about to pay off.
Twitter Blue is expected to be either officially announced or released soon. Membership will cost USD $2.99 per month, and will offer new features such as Collections and the ability to undo tweets. Collections will allow users to categorize their saved tweets into folders for further convenience. The ability to undo tweets, bouncing off of the likes of unsending messages on Instagram or Messenger, will allow users to undo posting within a short while of posting something on the platform.
Other than this, Ms. Wong also notes that a tier system might follow Twitter Blue, allowing for the likes of more fee-gated experiences like a cleaner newsfeed and the sort. There's no idea what this will look like right now, but let's wait and see, we suppose.
Read next: Twitter Expanding Its Feature Options with The Introduction of “Collections” Within A Few Weeks
Premium services are sort of becoming a norm for online media platforms, perhaps dating back to YouTube's introduced of YouTube Red. Having said that, YouTube Red also received such unabashed online criticism and ridicule, followed by a failure to ever reach significantly successful numbers that it was then rebranded to YouTube Originals. Twitter Blue is definitely taking some direct inspiration from the idea, as can be surmised from a superficial glance. The nomenclature, for one (YouTube's logo is red, Twitter's is blue) is a dead giveaway. Then there's the promise of features that only this "elite" class of the userbase can enjoy. YouTube Originals offers exclusively generated content, the ability to listen to videos with your phone closed, no advertisements and the like.
So, how did this all start? In July of 2020, Twitter launched a survey, asking its userbase what pay-to-access features they'd like on the platform, accompanied by price ranges for some other potential tools as well. This was done as a method of gauging both audience reaction, while also digging for some ideas in establishing Twitter Blue. While ultimately user suggestions and feedback was not delved into, which is honestly a wise choice, the stage was set for work to begin. And apparently, as reported by researcher Jane Manchun Wong, that work is about to pay off.
Twitter Blue is expected to be either officially announced or released soon. Membership will cost USD $2.99 per month, and will offer new features such as Collections and the ability to undo tweets. Collections will allow users to categorize their saved tweets into folders for further convenience. The ability to undo tweets, bouncing off of the likes of unsending messages on Instagram or Messenger, will allow users to undo posting within a short while of posting something on the platform.
Other than this, Ms. Wong also notes that a tier system might follow Twitter Blue, allowing for the likes of more fee-gated experiences like a cleaner newsfeed and the sort. There's no idea what this will look like right now, but let's wait and see, we suppose.
Read next: Twitter Expanding Its Feature Options with The Introduction of “Collections” Within A Few Weeks
