So Twitter Blue, the app’s subscription service, is actually a thing and it’s going live as of this week. But that’s only if you live in one of two countries: Australia or Canada. Pricing was confirmed recently but the current pricing… isn’t the same. If you’re an Aussie, you’ll be paying $4.49 AUD (R47) and if you’re a Canuk you’ll be on the hook for $3.49 CAD (R40) per month.
But is it worth dropping a little less than the price of a Spotify subscription every month for whatever Twitter’s new stuff consists of? Well, that’s up to you.
Twitter Blue (Da Ba Dee)
Since the service is now live in two countries, we’ve got a rather good overview of what to expect. It’s not like politicians, where you only find out how terrible a mistake you’ve made after you elect them — we’re getting a heads-up on this transaction.
Much of it we found out early — a leak revealed the existence of the ability to undo tweets, but you’ve only got 30 seconds to realise how much of a bonehead you were before it’s sent. You’ll be able to group saved tweets thanks to a new Bookmark Folders feature and there’s also a new Reader Mode that’ll make those long tweet threads even easier to read. But, of course, you’ll need to subscribe to Twitter Blue in order to use all of this.
Other Twitter Blue features include the ability to change the colour of the app icon, as well as new theme colours to play with. As for the limited release? Twitter says that’s because “…this initial phase is to gain a deeper understanding of what will make your Twitter experience more customized, more expressive, and generally speaking more .” It should make its way around the world soon enough, so there’s plenty of time for you to decide if it’s worth paying for.