Scroll has announced that its independent ad-free subscription based model will be ending in 30 days, with the service being incorporated into Twitter Blue instead.
Scroll's acquisition by Twitter was a topic that was met with much online discussion, especially pertaining to what plans the microblogging social media platform had in mind for it. As it currently exists, the former can be thought of as a form of Spotify, but for news publications and articles. Scroll is a monthly based subscription service that offers ad-free access to articles from multiple different publications, online and offline. Some famous examples include The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, USA Today, and Vox Media. All of these and many more accessible under a USD $5 per month is quite the deal, and led to a lot of success for Scroll.
Twitter's eye fell on Scroll's modest climb around 2021, or perhaps even earlier. At any rate, the company was acquired early on in May, leading to a lot of speculation as to what role the acquisition would play in either company's future, moving forward. Many individuals even speculated that Scroll would have something to do with Twitter's new Blue subscription service, which offers a ton of features that the community can make use of. These individuals, even if they weren't right on the money, ended up getting quite close to the heart of the matter. Using Scroll's expertise to build up new features on Twitter would be useful, yes, but shutting it's public accessibility down and making it a Blue exclusive could be a very lucrative option. Twitter Blue already has a vast array of features that the community finds desirable. Scroll's just another attractive addition to that list.
Public reaction hasn't started rolling out all that much yet, although many users can expect it to be mixed. Primary amongst the dissenters will obviously be individuals currently subscribed to Scroll. While such users have been given a 30 day window, as explained via emails sent out to them from the site, it's still going to be quite the annoyance to deal with. Such users won't necessarily want to subscribe to a completely separate service, filled with features that they don't necessarily want just to get their Scroll back, even if it does cost nearly the same (less, actually). Another issue is that Twitter Blue hasn't been widely rolled out yet, only being accessible to the Australian and Canadian quadrant of the community.
Then again, it's not the end of the world. There has been no evidence to suggest that Twitter will hike up its prices to accommodate for the introduction of Ad-Free Articles (quite a less impressive name than Scroll, but oh well). Many of these Scroll users will also have Twitter accounts, based on pure probability. Therefore, it will still be just as accessible as always. All one has to do is think of the additional features as very thick icing on the cake.
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Scroll's acquisition by Twitter was a topic that was met with much online discussion, especially pertaining to what plans the microblogging social media platform had in mind for it. As it currently exists, the former can be thought of as a form of Spotify, but for news publications and articles. Scroll is a monthly based subscription service that offers ad-free access to articles from multiple different publications, online and offline. Some famous examples include The Atlantic, BuzzFeed News, USA Today, and Vox Media. All of these and many more accessible under a USD $5 per month is quite the deal, and led to a lot of success for Scroll.
Twitter's eye fell on Scroll's modest climb around 2021, or perhaps even earlier. At any rate, the company was acquired early on in May, leading to a lot of speculation as to what role the acquisition would play in either company's future, moving forward. Many individuals even speculated that Scroll would have something to do with Twitter's new Blue subscription service, which offers a ton of features that the community can make use of. These individuals, even if they weren't right on the money, ended up getting quite close to the heart of the matter. Using Scroll's expertise to build up new features on Twitter would be useful, yes, but shutting it's public accessibility down and making it a Blue exclusive could be a very lucrative option. Twitter Blue already has a vast array of features that the community finds desirable. Scroll's just another attractive addition to that list.
Public reaction hasn't started rolling out all that much yet, although many users can expect it to be mixed. Primary amongst the dissenters will obviously be individuals currently subscribed to Scroll. While such users have been given a 30 day window, as explained via emails sent out to them from the site, it's still going to be quite the annoyance to deal with. Such users won't necessarily want to subscribe to a completely separate service, filled with features that they don't necessarily want just to get their Scroll back, even if it does cost nearly the same (less, actually). Another issue is that Twitter Blue hasn't been widely rolled out yet, only being accessible to the Australian and Canadian quadrant of the community.
Then again, it's not the end of the world. There has been no evidence to suggest that Twitter will hike up its prices to accommodate for the introduction of Ad-Free Articles (quite a less impressive name than Scroll, but oh well). Many of these Scroll users will also have Twitter accounts, based on pure probability. Therefore, it will still be just as accessible as always. All one has to do is think of the additional features as very thick icing on the cake.
Read next: Twitter is sunsetting a feature to enhance the live video quality