Twitter To Become a Subscription App?

Despite the record 2.9% Twitter user growth in 2020, analysts forecast a declining user growth rate in the coming years. To become more competitive in the social media landscape, Twitter has announced quite a few updates coming to the platform, starting from communities as an alternative to Facebook’s groups to Clubhouse-like audio spaces.

Twitter Blue subscription

Recently introduced Twitter’s first-ever approach to subscription services. Twitter Blue initially started rolling out in Australia and Canada to understand what will make the user’s experience more customized and expressive. For $2.99 a month, users will get a handful of exclusive features:

• Bookmark Folders will allow users to organize their saved tweets in the way they like and find them more easily.

• Undo Tweet to avoid instant publishing. With this feature, Twitter Blue subscribers will have the ability to set the timer for up to 30 seconds to review the tweet and edit out any typos made before publishing it. 

• Reader Mode for a more pleasant reading experience. It will convert long threads on Twitter and turn them into easy-to-read text so that users can read all the latest content seamlessly.

• Dedicated Customer Support for users facing subscription-specific issues. From enrollment to managing the subscription, a dedicated support member will answer all questions.
• Customizable Twitter icon and app theme. Blue will allow users to choose from six icon designs and six unique color themes.

Reportedly, Twitter acquired Scroll, the $5-per-month subscription service that removes ads from websites that participate in the platform. The former CEO of Scroll, Tony Haile, now working in the product team at Twitter, tweeted that Scroll would “integrate into a broader Twitter subscription later in the year.” It means that the ad-free plan of Twitter Blue could be coming soon. The company said that different plans with exclusive features are coming once the Twitter Blue will be available worldwide in their press conference.

Communities

Users are finally getting Facebook-like communities. Twitter will provide a more private engagement option that will enable users to interact with users around shared interests, which could help to see more engagement in the platform itself. Users will view its members, introduction page and community feed when joining the community, just like in Facebook.

Super Tweets

Earlier this year, Twitter announced that they are working on a Patreon-like feature, allowing creators to monetize their accounts and provide subscribers with “bonus” content.

According to Wong’s research, Super Tweets will be available to users with at least 10 000 followers, who have posted at least 25 tweets within the past 30 days, and are at least 18 years old. In addition, creators will have to choose the category of their Super Tweets, which could range from podcasting or vlogging to Only Fans adult content. 

The report also mentions that Super Tweets subscription will be $4.99 a month. Twitter also began testing Tip Jar, which will allow users to make one-time payments to creators directly on the platform by clicking a dollar bill icon on their Twitter profile. In addition, the company announced that they wouldn’t take a cut of donations, which supports several payment options, including Cash App, Venmo, PayPal and Apple Pay.

Spaces

It seems like Twitter is taking all of the most popular platforms’ best features and packing them into theirs. And Spaces is no exception. Twitter’s Spaces will allow users to drop in audio chat, just like the Clubhouse app, which generated the buzz earlier this year.

Currently, the new feature is only available through iOS and Android mobile devices. However, desktop users can also join and listen to the live chat through the Web version. As the new feature is still in the early stage, Spaces channels are public to anyone, meaning users cannot create private or invite-only channels and it is limited to 11 people per channel. The host of the audio chat can schedule the channel for up to 14 days and set reminders for the participants.

Perhaps the most exciting feature of Spaces is live audio transcription. Users who are hard of hearing will have the ability to transcribe the live audio chat into text and communicate with others easier. If you're looking for professional transcription services though, you're better off looking elsewhere.

Bottom line

Twitter is on the journey to provide users a brand new experience on its platform with the features announced and rolling out.

Features like Communities and Spaces will encourage users to start deeper conversations with people who share common interests. The experimental Twitter Blue subscription introduces users to exclusive perks and Super Tweets is an opportunity for content creators to monetize their work.

Providing more tools for creating and discovering the content with a motive to capture more long-term users is an ample opportunity for Twitter to maintain its momentum and increase the revenue as the growth rate is declining.