People often express surprise that Twitter is free, but for some people it isn’t – Twitter Blue launched in several countries last year and added a few extra features for anyone willing to pay $2.99 a month. Today, the service told subscribers it’s raising the price (via Matt Navara), and in the US, it goes up to $4.99 per month. That probably won’t break the wallets of information addicts who choose to pay for a service that still has ads in their feed, but it might be enough to make people wonder if it’s worth it.
The add-ons in the Twitter Blue pack range from being extremely useful (a tweet window to undo typos, a customizable navigation bar, a list of top articles shared by people you follow, and ad-free access to articles on sites like The edge) to trivial (the ability to choose from several app icons) to questionable (NFT hexagon profile pictures).
In an email to users, the Twitter Blue team emphasizes that the higher percentage “helps us continue to build some of the features you’ve asked for, improve the current features you already love.” and supporting our mission to support journalism.”
Elon Musk is not mentioned in particular, although the company just blamed him for a drop in revenue in the second quarter compared to the year before. Musk is now trying to end his deal to take over Twitter for $44 billion, but in happier times, he’d reportedly floated the idea of an undisclosed subscription service outside of Blue that he thought would one day reach more than 100 million subscribers. can pull.
The higher price is already taking effect for new subscribers, but for the early adopters, Twitter says they will be locked into the original price until October and can expect an opportunity to cancel at least 30 days before the new rate goes into effect.
To keep customers on the hook, the Twitter Blue email teases a “more frictionless reading experience” in the works, among other features launching in Twitter Blue Labs. One reason I might be staying until at least October, if not after that, isn’t in the email either: editable tweets. Twitter seems to have picked up the pace of feature development under Parag Agrawal’s governance, and with the feature already announced and in testing, I can wait to see if it gets included as a Twitter Blue-on at launch. benefit.