An even more expensive Twitter Blue subscription tier may be headed our way, according to a Saturday tweet from CEO Elon Musk. Musk claims, he and his already thin operating crew are working on plans to introduce a “higher priced” subscription for Twitter Blue users that allows “zero ads.”
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The full details of this new Twitter Blue tier are largely unknown, as the only information about the tier comes directly from Musk’s tweet. Twitter did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Mashable. In theory, Musk is serious about an ad-free tier coming to Twitter, but Musk also stated in court this week that just because he tweets something, it “does not mean people believe it or will act accordingly.” So, who knows if we should believe him or not?
As it stands for Twitter Blue users now, the current $7.99 per month subscription promises 50 percent fewer ads, a feature that has yet to be rolled out. Features that do exist, however, include a blue “verified” checkmark, the ability to edit and undo tweets, a reader mode for long threads, and prioritized ranking in conversations. Other promised features coming to the platform include “Coins” to reward creators (à la TikTok) and the ability to make the polarizing view counts feature optional.
Musk’s desire to offer an ad-free Twitter experience is due in part to what he claims are frequent and big ads taking over the platform. This announcement comes just a week after a Wall Street Journal report found that Twitter was willing to match advertisers up to $250,000 in a desperate plea for ad buyers to return. In the same thread, Musk also claims that a creator fund is in the works to incentivize content creators to stay on Twitter.
Musk’s tweet comes days after Twitter suddenly stopped supporting third-party clients who previously had access to the platform, and the two events may be related. According to the Verge, Twitter does not earn ad revenue when its API is used through third-party clients, meaning Musk was most likely grasping for more ad revenue by snubbing these third-party developers. Also per the Verge, the extra-expensive paid tier can be understood as another response to Twitter’s growing financial struggles — Musk simply needs users to give Twitter more money.
The Twitter drama never seems to stop does it? But maybe an expensive, ad-free version will deaden the pain.
