Twitter is changing
On October 27, 2022, Elon Musk bought the social media company Twitter for $44 BIllion. Since then there have been a lot of changes in Twitter.
After acquiring Twitter, Elon Musk has said that he wants to make Twitter an "everything app" by adding features like long-form tweets, encrypted DMs, videos, and payments.
In an email that Elon send to Twitter employees, Musk said that Twitter's current value is at $20 Billion(less than half of the $44 Billion) and he sees a "clear but difficult path" to increase the value of Twitter to $250 Billion, according to The Wall Street Journal.
That's why there are a lot of changes happening on Twitter which we will cover in this email.
What's Changed on Twitter?
1. Twitter's News Feed:
The first major change is in Twitter's News Feed. Previously, there was one single feed, and in this feed, only posts from those accounts appear which users follow.
Now, there is the addition of a new tab called "For You" along with"Following".In the "For You" tab, algorithms will suggest tweets of accounts that users don't follow.
The "Following" tab will show tweets from accounts that a user follows.
2. Twitter blue
Twitter is introducing a paid verification method called Twitter Blue. The cost for Twitter Blue is $8 and 11$ for iOS users.
From 15th April, blue check marks will only be available to users which pay for Twitter Blue.
Accounts that pay for Twitter Blue will be only recommended on the "For You" Feed. Paid accounts will see 50% fewer ads than unpaid users.
The company has said that there are many other benefits of paying for a Twitter Blue subscription including a verified blue checkmark, posting longer tweets, two-factor authentication, and higher visibility.
Revenue-wise, Twitter Blue has just made $11 Million on mobile subscriptions in the last three months after it relaunched. People are criticizing this Twitter feature but Elon Musk has also posted tweets that show that a blue subscription is worth it.
3. Gold and Gray Tick
Apart from Twitter blue, gold, and gray ticks is the new addition.
"The gold check mark indicates that the account is an official business account through Twitter Verified Organizations,” according to Twitter.
The cost of gold Tick is $1000 per month.
For example, McDonald's has a gold tick on Twitter.
Gray Tick
Gray Tick means that the account is for government institutions or multilateral organizations.
Rishi Sunki's (prime minister of the UK) account has a silver tick.
However, some organizations and people have said that they will not pay for any subscription. Popular news organization"The New York Times" which has 55 million followers on Twitter, is one of them. No tickmark is connected to their account.
4. Banning links to other social media apps
In December 2022, Twitter banned sharing links on social media networks including Facebook, Instagram, Mastodon, Tribel, Post, Nostr, and Truth Social. Social media profile aggregators like lnk. bio and linktr. ee are also banned from Twitter.
A few days ago, Twitter also banned Substack links.
The thing to consider is if you run paid advertisements on Twitter, then you can break all the rules and promote any social media platform links.
The reason for banning these networks may be that Twitter doesn't want to promote their direct competitors or platforms which are rising due to recent policies of Twitter.
5. End Of free Twitter API:
Twitter API which is used for research, tracking changes on Twitter accounts, and for many other purposes by developers) is not more free under Elon Musk's Ship.
The basic plan starts from $100 per month with access to only 10000 tweets. The more advanced plans start from $42000 per month( with access to 50 Million tweets) to $210000 per month (with access to 100 Million tweets). Before Elon Control, the highest level of price for Twitter API was $2899 per month.
After this announcement, some popular Twitter boats, researchers, and automated accounts said that they will shut down their services rather than pay such a large amount.