First Impressions: Twitter Blue

Posted on November 9, 2021    Posted by John Scalzi      4 Comments

“Twitter Blue” is Twitter’s new subscription service, which adds some new functionality and lets users try experimental features before anyone else. Here are some early impressions. Cut and pasted from Twitter using Twitter Blue’s threading app, with minor editing:

“I discovered today that I have access to Twitter Blue, and as it happens I have a spare $3 in coins from the couch cushions, so I went ahead and got a subscription to see what this AZURE-TINGED SUPER TWITTER EXPERIENCE is like. Behold my glory!

“So far the most noticeable thing is after I press the “tweet” button, a 20-second timer (by default, it’s extendable) starts running, so if I see a typo I can recall the tweet before it posts in order to fix the error. NOTE: I’m still going to make typos, sorry.

“I guess this is the functional equivalent of the long-desired “edit” button? As long as you’re the sort to actually re-read your posts before they go live, in which case, you’re probably doing that already and the timer is superfluous? But maybe not everyone does that.

“(Also the Twitter Blue appears to have a built-in thread reader so you don’t scroll through multiple tweets, you can read it all in one go. Why, it’s just like having a blog again!)

“Oh, and also apparently I can post 10-minute long videos, which I can pretty much assure you is a functionality I’m not going to take much advantage of here.

“The ability to post cat pictures appears unaffected in any way.

“I’ll report further when I play with Twitter Blue a little bit more. So far: It’s all right, although it seems you’re paying for the privilege of having functionality that you can find elsewhere, now baked into the Twitter client. Is that worth $3/month? Maybe for some!

“(Oh, and, PS: Twitter Blue functionality does not seem to work in the Tweetdeck client. Whether that’s temporary or not, I guess we’ll find out.)”

— JS