Twitter Blue Arrives in the US: Here's What You Need to Know

The Twitter Blue premium subscription service is now available to users in New Zealand and the U.S. via Android, iOS and the web. The social network debuted Twitter Blue in Australia and Canada in June. The monthly cost is NZD 4.49 in New Zealand and $2.99 in the U.S. Twitter senior director of product Sara Beykpour stressed during a press call Monday, “Twitter is still and will always be free. This is an optimum premium layer for those who want it.” When asked how the social network will decide which features to make available to its main platform and which will be exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers, staff product manager Smita Gupta said the company will make those calls based on “learning from our customers and understanding who they are and what they want.” Since Twitter Blue’s rollout in June, Beykpour said Twitter has been able to “gather a lot of valuable feedback and insight,” adding that the option appeals to “super tweeters,” and saying, “Twitter Blue resonated with people who are verified or have large follower counts.” Gupta said Twitter Blue is the first item subscribers will see on their drop-down menu, and tapping it brings them to a settings page where they can customize how they access its exclusive features. Twitter Blue’s ad-free articles feature, formerly known as Scroll, gives subscribers access to fast-loading content from more than 300 publishers in the U.S., including The Atlantic, BuzzFeed, The Daily Beast, The Hollywood Reporter, Insider, the Miami Herald, The Philadelphia Inquirer, Rolling Stone, Slate, USA Today and The Washington Post. Twitter senior director, longform Tony Haile said the company’s goal is to “build win-win partnerships with publishers in all markets,” adding that when subscribers click on ad-free articles on Twitter Blue, they “go directly to the publisher’s website, and the publisher has complete control over the experience.” An undisclosed portion of revenue from Twitter Blue subscription fees goes directly to publisher partners, and Haile called this initiative a “whole new way to support journalism,” adding that the goal is for each partner site to earn 50% more per reader than they would have by serving ads to that reader. The Top Articles feature enables subscribers to see the most shared articles among their network over the past 24 hours. Twitter Blue can be customized with exclusive application icons—"a standard set and seasonal ones,” Gupta noted—as well as different color themes. Its Custom Navigation feature, located in a tab at the bottom of the Twitter app, enables subscribers to pick and choose the destinations they visit the most and display them in their navigation bar. Bookmark Folders enable users to organize tweets they have saved so that they can be easily found when people wish to refer back to them. Undo Tweet, which has proven to be Twitter Blue’s most popular feature, enables users to preview and edit tweets before they are sent, with a customizable timer giving them up to 30 seconds to do so. Gupta said during the press call, “Existing subscribers absolutely love the feature,” and Beykpour added, “People love to review their own tweets before they go out in the wild.” Twitter Blue subscribers can view long tweet threads in Reader mode, which turns those “long threads into a much more beautiful reading experience and removes all the noise,” Gupta said, referring to elements that appear repeatedly in current tweet threads, such as the author’s profile picture and each tweet’s engagement metrics. As previously reported, subscribers get early access to new features via the Twitter Blue Labs option, and the first two being tested are the ability to upload and tweet videos up to 10 minutes long, while non-subscribers are limited to two minutes and 20 seconds, and the option of pinning direct message conversations to the top of their inbox. Twitter said in a blog post Tuesday, “From our initial launch, we learned that existing subscribers loved many of the features we brought to market, including the ability to customize and tailor their experience on Twitter to meet their needs and personalities and, of course, to review their tweets before they go out in the wild. We also learned that they want even more customization, exclusive first-looks and the ability to make their Twitter experience more functional. And we’re building toward exactly that.” The social network concluded, “With Twitter Blue, we are not only bringing the most active people on Twitter more of what they want, but we’re also supporting local, national and ad-free journalism in a more direct way. It’s early days for Twitter Blue, and we’re looking forward to listening, learning and building out even more features and tools over the coming months. As we look ahead, you can anticipate more features in Labs, more customization opportunities on different types of surfaces and perhaps a few surprises along the way.” Beykpour elaborated during the press call, “What we’re really trying to achieve here is a set of features that resonate with the power users who want more control and customization. We are not currently considering a Twitter ad-free product. We are currently focused on a product that we think people will want to pay for, targeting power users.”