TweetDeck may become a paid Twitter Blue feature in the future

It’s beginning to look as though the future edition of TweetDeck, the Twitter app’s power-user-focused counterpart, may not be free. Jane Manchun Wong, a security researcher, uncovered a work-in-progress sign-up page for the app, which advertises itself as a “powerful, real-time tool for those who live on Twitter” and provides an ad-free experience.

While the page does not clearly state that you must pay Twitter to access TweetDeck, firms rarely offer “assists you in avoiding the thing that makes us money” as a benefit of free goods (even if, like the current version of TweetDeck, it is). And, as if that weren’t enough, Twitter already has a premium subscription service that it’s attempting to sell to its most devoted users.

This is not the first time we’ve heard that Twitter is considering monetizing TweetDeck. Manchun Wong discovered code earlier this month that appeared to send non-Blue subscribers who attempted to access the updated version of TweetDeck to the Twitter Blue sign-up website.

The $2.99 a month membership already feels like it’s aimed at people who use Twitter professionally, so what amounts to a premium edition of the service’s app would fit right in.