Twitter is getting a paid premium feature called Super Follow.
The social network announced during yesterday’s investor event what its paid option will look like. Users who pay $4.99 per month will be able to access exclusive content from people they follow. A mix between Patreon and Substack, in the style and under the platform of Twitter. Something was rumored a few days ago and previously job offers in the company let it be seen to the point that they confirmed it.
Twitter announces Super Follow feature for $5 per month
As announced by Twitter, the ‘Super Follow’ offers the ability for users to charge their followers for access to additional content. This could be for example exclusive tweets, access to private groups, paid newsletters (after purchasing Revue), or badges that reflect that the user is financially supporting others.
Through this direct payment by subscription Twitter will look for a new way to make money in addition to the options it already has. Presumably, Twitter will take a commission of those $4.99 per month. It is a business similar to what Substack has with its paid newsletters or Patreon with exclusive content. Platforms for creators charge directly from the user, in exchange for giving a small commission to the platform itself.
However, Twitter has not yet announced a specific date for the implementation of the ‘Super Follow’. Beyond this preview of the feature, they say it will be “what’s next” on Twitter. The feature has been announced at the analyst and investor event, focusing for the moment more on showing how this can be profitable than on its detailed specifications.
Groups and a “safe mode
In addition to ‘Super Follow’, Twitter has announced ‘Communities’. This feature is very similar to other social networks with interest-based groups such as Facebook Groups. Users can join or create groups on specific topics where they can share content and interact.
There are not many details about what the Twitter communities will be like. In principle, as they will be of common interests, users will be able to share more specific content about those interests. A way to focus more granularly on the content and the type of users that each user follows on Twitter, since currently virtually all content is mixed. At the moment it has not been announced when it will be available.
Finally, there is a third feature that Twitter is preparing, the ‘Safety Mode’. In this “safe mode,” users allow Twitter to automatically block and mute accounts that may be violating Twitter’s rules by interacting with the user who has activated the ‘Safety More’.
This is a feature that “cleans up” a user’s Twitter activity by getting rid of accounts that may be displaying abusive content or violent responses. Twitter says that the automatic blocking occurs for a total of seven days after which interactions with that person are re-displayed. At the moment there are no further details about this feature.
