The arrival of a new test version in Canada and Australia finally shows how will the Twitter pay. Twitter Blue, as it is officially called, has confirmed some features already discovered by developer Jane Manchun. Even so, the most important debate revolves around whether the platform has become a field riddled with bots I gave.
Immersed for years in the complex transition to a successful monetization model, Twitter’s adoption of a subscription system was obvious. Twitter Blue It is now officially the channel’s new payment service. Announced on June 3, it is currently only available in Canada and Australia.
Some of these news already Manchun had advanced them via your profile. As on previous occasions, the developer had discovered clues by analyzing the source code. With the announcement of options to edit tweets and read threads more comfortably, the platform seems to have listened to the community.
Twitter ensures that the service as we know it will continue to be free. The question that arises then is whether it will be worth paying to ‘improve’ the experience. Thinking above all of a radicalized conversation, with numerous profiles closed by incitement to hatred and more and more users leaving the network.
“NOT A TUIT WITHOUT YOUR ERRATA”, A THING FROM THE PAST?
Maybe this phrase, a meme usual on the platform, be a thing of the past. With Twitter Blue finally comes the tweet edition. Of course, in a similar way to the option offered by Gmail. As Manchun already anticipated, a delayed send timer can be activated. It will give us an extra 30 seconds to edit or delete and thus avoid public blushes.
It is also very useful another usual request from the community: a ‘reader mode’ to more comfortably view the threads. Other interesting options They are to customize both the icon and the color theme of the application and have a configurable favorites folder. Finally, Twitter Blue users will have at their disposal an exclusive customer service.
Welcome to Twitter Blue — a new subscription service designed to give you more customization over your Twitter experience and access to premium features, including:
????Undo Tweet
????Bookmark Folders
????Reader Mode pic.twitter.com/YC6QiLM52U— Twitter Blue (@TwitterBlue) June 3, 2021
At the moment, the monthly cost of Twitter Blue is $ 3.49 in Canada and $ 4.49 in Australia. It is logical to expect that in Spain the price will be around these figures, after currency conversion. The ball is in the users’ court. Does it make sense to pay monthly for a more ‘professional’ Twitter experience? Time will tell.
THE PAYMENT TWITTER, PART OF ITS CONTINUING EVOLUTION
The Twitter Blue payment service is by no means the only novelty that the platform has offered in recent months. As it happens in other social networks, its success lies in adapting quickly to each new fashion. If that of “renew or die” is correct in general, in the field 2.0 it means nothing less than survival.
Already in January the purchase of the Revue newsletter platform. This maneuver anticipated that Twitter was preparing to the ability to charge for certain content. Another striking novelty was the irruption of Tip Jar, which allows you to sponsor the work of your favorite tweeters by sending them a ‘tip’.
Although probably the most commented modification has been the implementation of Spaces, first for iOS and recently also on Android. We are talking about live conversations with up to ten participants and rules defined by who starts the talk. These ‘Spaces’ have obviously been created to compete with the app social de moda, Clubhouse.
HAS TWITTER BECOME A FIELD OF BOTS AND HATE?
Although we already know what this new paid Twitter proposes, the most important discussion is whether it has been derived towards a social network where insults and aggressive tone are the norm. For example, “intoxication and hatred” are the reasons given by Ada Colau to justify the closure of her profile. The mayor of Barcelona thus joined other public figures such as the pianist James Rhodes, the influence Dulceida, the journalist Cristina Fallarás and the creator Javier Ambrossi.
I have decided to leave Twitter indefinitely. Here I tell my reasons.
I decided to leave Twitter indefinitely. Here I explain my reasons. pic.twitter.com/BxrrS9VsQc
– Ada Colau @ (@AdaColau) April 11, 2021
The ideological evolution on Twitter seems clear. If the conversation on the net around 15M tended to some optimism, the tone changed back in 2017. There is also a proliferation of bots that adulterate the conversation. And these tend to be more linked to far-right ideologies, according to data analysts such as Julian Macías, Mariluz Congosto Y Marcelino madrigal.
The answer is in the so-called monetization of hate: emotional content is always going to generate more virality. But there, too, lies the best weapon we have as users of the platform. A key to getting out of the ‘bubble’ that oppresses us on Twitter is to change our attitude. You combat polarization by speaking kindly and being generous in listening to others. As in life itself, neither more nor less.
In Nobbot | Twitter celebrates fifteen years with 353 million users worldwide
Images | Photo of Solen Feyissa in Pexels, Twitter Blue explanatory video, image of the tweet edit on the Twitter blog, Twitter message from Ada Colau
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