People regularly express surprise that Twitter is free, but it isn’t for everyone — Twitter Blue debuted in various regions last year, adding a few more features for those willing to pay $2.99 per month. The service informed members today that it is raising the price to $4.99 per month in the United States. That is unlikely to break the bank of information junkies who choose to pay for a service that still contains adverts in their feed, but it may be enough to make users wonder whether it is worthwhile.
The Twitter Blue package includes add-ons that range from extremely useful (an undo tweet window to fix typos, a customizable navigation bar, a list of Top Articles shared by people you follow, and ad-free access to articles on sites) to trivial (the ability to choose from different app icons) to dubious (NFT hexagon profile pics).
Notably, it makes no mention of Elon Musk, despite the fact that the firm recently blamed him for a drop in Q2 sales compared to the previous year. Musk is currently seeking to back out of his $44 billion plan to buy Twitter, but in happier times, he allegedly broached the notion of an undisclosed subscription service outside of Blue that he believed might draw more than 100 million customers eventually.
The increased pricing is now in place for new members, but Twitter claims that early adopters will be locked in at the previous price until October and will have at least 30 days to unsubscribe before the new cost takes effect.
The Twitter Blue email promises a “more frictionless reading experience” in the pipeline, among other features planned to arrive in Twitter Blue Labs, to keep paying users interested. One reason I may stay until at least October, if not longer, is not mentioned in the email: editable tweets. Twitter seems to have accelerated feature development under Parag Agrawal’s leadership, and with the feature already mentioned and under testing, I’m curious if it will be included as a Twitter Blue perk at launch.
