New York: The price of Twitter Blue, the social network’s new premium subscription service, is about to increase — a little more than 8 months after it made its debut.
The service, which launched in the US and New Zealand in November, allows subscribers to pay for features such as the ability to undo a tweet and read ad-free news articles. When it launched, Twitter Blue cost $3 per month, but that monthly cost is increasing to $5, Twitter informed subscribers on Thursday.
The Twitter Blue package add-ons range from extremely useful (an undo tweet window to correct mistakes, a customisable navigation bar, top articles shared by people you follow) to trivial (the ability to choose between different app icons).
In an email to users, the Twitter Blue team insists that 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.”
Notably, it doesn’t mention Elon Musk, even though the company blamed him for falling second-quarter revenue compared to a year earlier. Elon Musk is trying to get out of his deal to acquire Twitter for $44 billion, but in happier times, he had reportedly floated the idea of an unnamed subscription service outside of Blue that he thought could attract more than 100 million subscribers one day.
The higher price is already in effect for new subscribers. Still, for early adopters, Twitter says they will remain locked in at the original price until October and can expect to be allowed to cancel at least 30 days before the new price goes into effect.
To keep paying customers, Twitter Blue email teases a “smoother reading experience” in the works, among other features to be released in Twitter Blue Labs. One reason I might stick around until at least October, if not beyond, it’s also not listed in the email: editable tweets. Twitter seems to have picked up the pace of feature development under Parag Agrawal’s stewardship. With the feature already announced and in testing, I can’t wait to see if it’s included as a Twitter Blue benefit at launch.
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