Today, Twitter revealed a couple of major upcoming features: the option for users to charge their followers for access to extra content, and the capacity to create and join groups based on particular interests. These are two of Twitter's most significant changes, but they also actually fit into models that have been popular and influential on other social networks. The social media giant calls this feature Super Follows, which will allow users of Twitter to charge followers and give them access to additional content. That may be a bonus tweet, a community group access, a newsletter subscription, or a badge showing your support.
Image Source: Twitter
Twitter gave an example in a prototype snapshot where a user charges $4.99 per month to receive a set of perks. It is used by Twitter as a way of encouraging developers and publishers to be paid directly by their followers. In recent years, direct payment tools have become more and more relevant to creators. Patreon has been immensely popular, and direct creator payment features have all been released by other sites, including Facebook, YouTube, and even GitHub. The company has proposed subscription features that will give it a new stream of income, but it does not seem to have said yet what that cost would be. Twitter would probably take a cut.
A new feature called Communities, which seems to be their take on anything like Facebook Groups, was also announced by Twitter. Twitter suggests that individuals can build and enter communities around personal interests, such as cats or plants, allowing them to see more tweets based on those subjects. For Facebook, groups have been a huge success (and a huge issue of moderation, too), and they may be a helpful tool on Twitter, as the open-ended nature of the service can make it challenging for new users to get started on the web. As to when any of these features will arrive, there is no timeline yet.
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