Twitter CEO Elon Musk says he plans on rolling out a “higher priced” ad-free version of Twitter Blue, the monthly subscription service that allows you to edit your Tweets and now includes a blue “verified” checkmark next to your name, despite not verifying the identities of subscribers. Joy.
This may be in response to Blue’s low subscriber count as well as the social media company’s 40 percent decline in advertisement revenue, which was originally reported by The Verge’s Alex Heath in his Command Line newsletter. So, when will it launch and how much will it cost? We have absolutely no idea. As you can see in the Tweet thread below, Musk is being rather stingy with that information.
Futher reading: You can’t trust Elon Musk’s Twitter right now. Here’s why.
This news comes on the heels of Twitter banning third-party apps and sort of sweeping it under the metaphorical rug. In true Twitter fashion, the company made the change before telling anyone about it, suddenly shutting down access to third-party apps, issuing a statement that it was due to “enforcing long-standing API rules” days later, and then even later retroactively issuing new rules that banned those apps. This sudden change nuked long-loved Twitter clients like Tweetbot and Twitterrific. Industry observers suggested that the move occurred because third-party apps often don’t show sponsored Twitter ads.
Musk also tweeted about the next Twitter update, which will “stop switching you back to recommended tweets.” Will this update ever see the light of day? Who knows. Last month, Twitter featured a button that allowed you to pick which version of the timeline you’d like to use. This option vanished, however, when the social media company released a UI that lets you swipe between the two. These changes are happening at a breakneck pace and I’m not sure I like it. Is Twitter overpromising to save its hide? Likely.
