Twitter Blue launch: why Aussies will be first to test Twitter’s undo feature and subscription service

Aussie Twitter users will be the first to try the social network’s paid service, including a feature signalling a new era.

Twitter will ask its more than five million Australian users to be guinea pigs for its first subscription service on Friday as the tech giant releases paid features for the first time.

Australia and Canada will be the first two markets to test Twitter Blue, a service that will unlock new features for what executives say is “the cost of a cup of coffee per month”.

And while Australian social media experts have tentatively welcomed the tech giant’s move, they warn it could be hard to attract a big audience without offering a genuine “edit” feature.

Twitter product management senior director Sara Beykpour said the social network designed its first paid service to appeal to “Twitter super users,” including prolific Australian users.

“These are the folks who are engaged on Twitter, who are using it a lot for their job or their personal brand or to stay up to date with the news,” she said.

“The Australian user base is tech-savvy, for sure, and the number of people out of our user base in Australia that we hypothesise are the kinds of folks who use Twitter a lot and would find value in this are a really good match.”

Twitter will launch a paid service that will add an ‘undo’ function to the social network. Picture: Supplied

The Twitter Blue service will cost $4.49 per month and will unlock access to three major additions: an ‘undo’ feature, folders to organise bookmarks, and Reader View to show Twitter threads.

The undo feature is likely to attract the most attention after years of calls to let users edit tweets and correct mistakes after they’ve been published. While the new feature will not allow that, it will give users an option to delay publication for five to 30 seconds while users proofread their tweets.

Ms Beykpour said it was designed to help users eliminate grammatical errors without risking big changes to content after publication.

“I actually see edit and undo kind of differently. Undo is about helping fix typos and making sure that your tweet is good before other people see it. Edit carries some other product challenges around making sure you can’t abuse it,” she said.

Other Twitter Blue features will include priority access to Twitter support, coloured themes and a customisable app logo.

Twitter’s first paid service will be launched in Canada and Australia, where the company has more than five million users, according to Statista. Picture: AFP

Swinburne University social media senior lecturer Dr Belinda Barnet said it could be challenging for Twitter to attract paying customers after years without fees, as well as offering limited features at launch.

“Undo is the edit button you have when you can’t have an edit button,” she said.

“Twitter users have been asking for years for an edit button. I’m sure people would pay $4.50 for it but there would also be a massive outcry from users who didn’t get it.”

But Dr Barnet said Twitter’s move to offer subscriptions could signal a healthy move away from trading in user data for social networks while also giving passionate users more options.

“It’s a new income stream and it might be a way of shifting slightly away from generating income from advertising and your data,” she said.

“It will be interesting to see how it goes for them and if this proves to be an alternative source of income.”

Twitter’s subscription service comes just weeks after the company launched new features on its network, including a ‘tip jar’ for creators and new ways for accounts to be verified.

The launches followed a disappointing stock reaction to its finances last month, when the company failed to meet growth and revenue expectations.

Twitter Blue will progressively roll out to Australian Twitter users inside the company’s iPhone app on Friday, appearing in the left-hand menu.

But Ms Beykpour said the social network’s features would not change for those who chose not to pay for the service.

“If you’re not a subscriber, your experience should not be affected and we feel pretty strongly about that,” she said.