Twitter Hikes Price Of Subscription Service

Twitter is increasing the price of its paid Twitter Blue service from $2.99 (£2.50) to $4.99 in the US amidst a revenue slump that it blamed on uncertainty around Elon Musk’s proposed deal to buy the company, and which he is now attempting to back out of.

The social media firm has also begun rolling out a Status feature that allows users to choose from a list of predefined status messages.

Twitter said the Twitter Blue price increase would apply immediately for new users, while existing subscribers would continue to pay the earlier rate until October and would have 30 days to cancel their subscription before the rate hike takes effect.

Price hike

In an email to users the company said the higher rate “helps us continue to build some of the features you’ve been asking for, improve upon the current ones you already love and sustain our mission of supporting journalism”.

Subscribers get access to additional Twitter features, as well as ad-free access to articles on selected websites. The social media feed itself continues to contain ads.

Twitter Blue’s features include an “undo” feature for fixing typos in tweets, a customiseable navigation bar, a list of Top Articles shared by people the user follows, the ability to choose from a list of app icons and hexagon-shaped profile pictures for NFT accounts.

The service will now cost $6.99 per month in Australia, $6.49 in Canada and $6.99 in New Zealand. It isn’t currently available in the UK.

Edit button

In its message to users Twitter said a “more frictionless reading experience” was on the way, along with other features coming to the paid service.

Twitter has also confirmed it’s working on an “edit” button for already-posted messages, but hasn’t yet indicated when the feature might appear.

Musk in April conducted a poll on the service that indicated users overwhelmingly wanted the feature, but Twitter said it had been working on the feature since last year and “didn’t get the idea from a poll”.

Separately, Twitter confirmed it has begun limited tests that allow users to “add a status topic from a predetermined list” to “provide more context for your followers”.

Status messages

“So whether you are about to drop a hot Tweet thread, share your shower thoughts, or have a bad case of the Mondays, your Tweets can better convey what you are up to,” the company told Silicon UK.

The status messages recall those found on earlier chat services such as AOL Messenger, but are attached to a single post rather than indicating the user’s general state.

The indicators allow messages to be labelled as a “hot take” or an “AMA” (Ask Me Anything) or to warn of a “spoiler alert”, amongst others.