Twitter today announced the launch of its Twitter Blue subscription service in the U.S. and New Zealand after a limited launch this June in Canada and Australia. For $3 a month, you’ll be able to undo tweets, read threads all in one piece, and more.
In a Twitter thread, the company shared an expanded list of features beyond was initially on offer in June. Twitter Blue launched with undo tweet, bookmark folders, and reader mode, a set of features that attempted to address common Twitter use cases. Undo tweet is a hacky take on an edit button, giving users a short window of time (one minute) to recall a tweet they thought better of. Bookmark folders allows users to organize folders into collections, while reader mode turns the disconnected chaos of Twitter threads into a single readable page. Finally, there was some customization support for the Twitter app icon and in-app colors.
Now, Twitter Blue includes support for ad-free news consumption as a byproduct of Twitter’s purchase of Scroll earlier in the year. The company is also handing more control over to the user by allowing people to customize the Twitter interface by choosing which buttons show up on the home screen of the app. If you like Spaces, you’d be able to place the Spaces tab on your home page as opposed to Explore, for example. Finally, the company will let people try out new Twitter features via its Lab functionality. Today, it spotlighted pinned conversations for DMs for iOS, but there’s surely more to come in the months to follow.
https://twitter.com/TwitterBlue/status/1458110302793338892?s=20
Twitter Blue bundles in quite a few features that the most engaged users of the service have asked for. It’s clear that not everyone will be pleased — the internet is notoriously averse toward paying for things that used to be free — but there has been some thought put into the features of the initial rollout. If successful, it could be yet another step in steering social media away from the ad-funded model that had fallen under criticism recently and toward a more intentional audience.
Twitter isn’t the only one dabbling in subscription services. Instagram is also reportedly testing out its own subscription service, though the Meta-owned company has yet to make any public announcements to that effect.
Two new highly requested iCloud plugins just got added to ChatGPT, giving people who rely on Apple’s Mail and Calendar services a way to search emails, check appointments, and manage their schedules directly through the chatbot.
The integration is rolling out to all ChatGPT plans, including the free tier. You can access it on the web, desktop, and iOS.
Google Play is borrowing one of the Nintendo Switch’s most useful little tricks. A new Sidekick tool called Playbacks captures a short clip after something interesting has already happened, sparing players from running a screen recorder throughout an entire game.
Playbacks is part of Google Play Store v53.8 and keeps saved clips on the phone. Google first announced it earlier this month, but the new Play Store update marks its arrival for players. Anyone who has watched a perfect win vanish because the record button came too late already understands the appeal.
Samsung’s scandal over its Game Optimizing Service, or GOS, has returned with a bill attached. South Korea’s Fair Trade Commission has tentatively fined the company 20.1 billion won, or about $15.1 million, over gaming claims made for the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S22, and Tab S8.
The regulator says Samsung promoted the devices as gaming powerhouses without disclosing that GOS placed preset CPU and GPU limits on certain demanding games. Samsung disputes that conclusion, calling GOS a legitimate way to manage heat.