"Yes, the rumors are true," reads a tweet from Twitter's official communications team .
The rumors are about Twitter's often talked about paid subscription service. Twitter unveiled the new subscription tier, Twitter Blue, on Thursday. It is rolling immediately in Canada and Australia.
That's right, Canadian and Australian Mashable readers. Twitter is launching this service's "first iteration," exclusively for you.
So, what's included?
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Well, first of all — and I hate to disappoint you right off the bat — there is no "edit tweet" feature, despite the constant request from users to add one. However, there is an exclusive "Under Tweet" button for subscribers!
Basically, when a Twitter Blue subscriber tweets, they'll get 30 seconds to view a preview of how it'll look when it's live on the platform. During this window, users can double check their tweet and make sure everything is spelled correctly and makes sense. Or maybe they're having second thoughts about posting the tweet at all. If all is good, they can hit publish. If not, they can hit "Undo" and fix the tweet. During that 30 second time frame, no one except the user can see the tweet.
Another Twitter Blue feature is "Reader Mode." This helps subscribers easily read long Twitter threads. It basically takes out the unnecessary "noise," and presents the thread more like a news article.
If you're a heavy user of Twitter's Bookmark feature, then you'll like this next Twitter Blue exclusive: "Bookmark Folders." Users can easily sort their bookmarked tweets into categories for easy referencing. This could be an especially useful tool if you're someone who likes to refer back to classic tweets.
Twitter says that other "perks" come along with Twitter Blue as well, such as customizable icons for your phone's Twitter app and different in-app color themes.
Perhaps the most crucial feature that's included, though, was oddly downplayed by the company in its announcement. The subscription service comes with dedicated customer support. Heavy social media users know how impossible it is to reach a live human being at any one of the popular social platforms. This alone might be worth the price for some users.
Speaking of price, Twitter announced that Blue will cost $3.49 CAD for users in Canada and $4.49 AUD for Australian subscribers.
The company appears to be rolling out the service right now in order to generate feedback. It is requesting that subscribers reach out to the company via the new @TwitterBlue account with their thoughts, questions, and concerns.
If you have no interest in paying for Twitter, the company doesn't want you to worry either. Twitter assures users in its Twitter Blue announcement that the basic service and all of its existing features will always be free to use.
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Topics Social Media X/Twitter
