Tech Talk

Twitter 'Blue' will set you back just $3 a month.

Update, May 27 (8:00 p.m. ET): Twitter Blue to feature color themes and reading mode

What you need to know

• The first details of Twitter subscription plans emerged this weekend.
• It'll be called Twitter Blue and set you back at least $3 a month.
• Features will include little tools like 'undo tweet' and bookmark collections.

Twitter's subscription service has just been named. According to social media sleuth and security researcher Jane Manchun Wong, the service has been tentatively dubbed "Twitter Blue" and will cost $2.99 per month.

With Twitter Blue, the company reportedly plans to offer a package of convenience features. The features aren't something you'll miss if you already have Twitter, but they'll also be incredibly nice to have.

First, there's 'undo tweets.' Much like Gmail's 'undo send,' it allows you to undo a tweet and unsend it within a customizable window of time. You don't need to pay for this; Twitter's delete button works perfectly fine. Would it be nice to have for big brands or social media personalities? Certainly.

Twitter is also working on a bookmarks collection for Blue. You'll be able to sort your bookmarks into folders and effectively use Twitter like a scrapbook. With politicians, academics, and media sharing thoughts on Twitter frequently, it can certainly be a useful tool for an archivist. Then again, you can use Pocket or Google Keep or other third-party extensions to collect and catalog tweets anyway, but this is more convenient.

Twitter is calling their upcoming Subscription Service “Twitter Blue”, priced at $2.99/month for now, including paid features like:

Undo Tweets: https://t.co/CrqnzIPcOH

Collections: https://t.co/qfFfAXHp1o pic.twitter.com/yyMStpCkpr

— Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) May 15, 2021

Wong also says that Twitter plans to offer a lot more than these two features. Its Scroll and Revue acquisitions will certainly tie into Twitter's subscription plans, the company has confirmed as much. What's new here is that Twitter will offer different tiers, which each tier offering more functionality than the last.

Social media has traditionally been free, but companies have been flirting with ways to make users pay for their services — often indirectly. WhatsApp will let you buy from shops in select markets, Instagram and Facebook as well. Both Facebook and TikTok will let you send money to streamers, and so on. This is the first direct mainstream social media subscription service, and others will undoubtedly be paying close attention to how it's received.

Update, May 27 (8:00 p.m. ET) ― More details of Twitter Blue subscription

Jane Manchun Wong has uncovered more information about Twitter Blue. The subscription service was discovered on the iOS app store listing, and it seems she could sign up.

As previously mentioned, the subscription would cost $2.99 per month come with the ability to "undo tweets." Other features Wong was able to uncover include the color themes and app icon customization. It would appear that Twitter is giving users the ability to change the app theme to a color of their choosing, including the app icon.

There's also a "Reader Mode" that will convert your threads to make them easier to read. It's not clear at the moment what that means or how that will look, but it could be similar in some way to the Reading Mode found on many web browsers.

Given the nature of the leak, it would appear that Twitter is not too far from launching its subscription model. The company is currently in the midst of testing several of its monetization features, and this would become yet another way for the company to boost its revenue stream.