Twitter’s new subscription service arrived this week not with a bang, but a whimper. Twitter Blue provides some minor additional functionality in exchange for $3 a month. The offer is clearly aimed at “power users” who have been asking for a few extra bells and whistles.
The press reaction was muted. In an article titled “Twitter’s Subscription Plan Generates Yawns from Wall Street,” The Information’s Martin Peers said: “How willing anyone, even power users, will be to pay up for what Twitter is offering, particularly overseas, is anyone’s guess…Right now, you can’t blame investors for being skeptical.”
You know what? I disagree with the naysayers on this one. Particularly if you’re new to subscriptions, there’s absolutely nothing wrong with launching a small, targeted service, and developing it slowly over time. There are real merits to this approach, which I’ll get into later.
First, though, let’s start with the basics. Twitter Blue has three new features:
Bookmark Folders: Twitter Blue lets you bookmark and organize your saved tweets.
Undo Tweet: Twitter Blue lets you revise a tweet up to 30 seconds before it actually goes live, so you can correct misspellings.
Reader Mode: Twitter Blue makes it easier to read long threads by “getting rid of the noise.”
And as an added bonus, Twitter Blue users will get access to customizable app icons as well as “dedicated subscription customer support.” The service rolled out in Australia and Canada last week, with more countries to come.
So there you have it. Again, this is clearly a very niche product intended only for die-hard fans. As if in recognition of this fact, Twitter notes that these kinds of features have been requested for some time, and even offers up some tweets as evidence: