US users can now pay to try Twitter Blue, a $2.99-a-month subscription service that adds exclusive features to the social media platform.
The company first rolled out Twitter Blue to Australia and Canada back in June. But on Tuesday, Twitter expanded the paid tier to those in the US and New Zealand while also introducing a new perk involving ad-free articles.
The ad-free articles will appear for iOS and desktop users when they visit certain news sites through the Twitter app or website. Publications offering the ad-free experience include The Washington Post, L.A. Times, USA Today, Reuters, and BuzzFeed, among others, which will receive a portion of the revenue from the Twitter Blue service.
“This is just the beginning for Ad-free Articles with much more ad-free content to come as we continue to build more partnerships, with more publishers, in more markets,” the company said in Tuesday’s announcement.
Twitter Blue won’t give you an edit button, but the paid tier does offer an Undo button, which gives you 60 seconds to preview and make changes to a tweet before it gets published.
“Subscribers also have access to Reader, which turns long threads into an easier-to-read experience. They can also change the text size within Reader to tailor their experience even further,” the company added. In addition, Twitter Blue users can customize the interface through a collection of icons and design themes.
US users can upgrade to paid tier by accessing a new button for Twitter Blue in Twitter’s main menu for desktop and mobile. We haven’t seen the button yet, so it seems the company is still rolling out Twitter Blue to US users.
The other perk on Twitter Blue is how users get early access to features the company is testing. One such experimental function includes uploading videos up to 10 minutes long, and pinning a favorite conversation to the top of their direct messages.
On the downside, not every Twitter Blue feature will be available across every platform. For example, a new feature to see the top articles shared in your network is currently only available for Android and desktop users. Meanwhile, the ability to customize the Twitter interface is exclusive to iOS users for now.
In Tuesday's announcement, Twitter added: “We also learned they (users) want even more customization, exclusive first-looks, and the ability to make their Twitter experience more functional. And we’re building towards exactly that."