Twitter Might Offer Users Much-Awaited Features for a Price

witter has confirmed that they are working on an “Undo Tweet” feature for their app… but you might have to pay to get to use it.

Credit: Twitter

Jane Manchun Wong, an app researcher, posted a GIF on 19 March 2021 that featured an “undo button” that lasted for five seconds after a tweet has been posted. This means that users will have a last-minute chance of deciding whether to go ahead with their tweet or not. Should the timer expire, the only option for them to remove the tweet is by deleting it. Sean Keane of CNET emailed Twitter asking if they were indeed working on the feature, to which Twitter replied that they currently are.

However, Wong discovered that the ability to “undo” a tweet’s posting is locked behind a paywall; a subscription fee must be paid to use the feature.

Twitter has been considering adding subscription-only features to its platform since 31 July 2020 when they sent out a survey to users asking for their opinion on what they would like to have in a subscription model. According to reporter Andrew Roth’s tweet, the survey’s respondents could indicate whether a certain feature was very important to have or not. These features included but were not limited to video publishing, badges, auto-responses, recruiting as well as custom stickers and hashtags. Undoing tweets was the first of these options.

On 23 July 2020, days before the survey’s release, Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey confirmed that the social media platform was looking into a subscription model to diversify its revenue sources but stressed that he has “a really high bar for when we could ask consumers to pay for aspects of Twitter.” Then, in February 2021, Jacob Kastrenakes of The Verge reported that the social media platform announced that users could charge their followers for access to additional content, Super Follows, and be given the ability to create and join groups based on specific interests.

Unfortunately, the fact that people will have to pay Twitter to be able to “undo” posting a tweet sparked concerns with some users who immediately voiced their opinions on Wong’s tweet.

Twitter officials have yet to disclose details on the platform’s planned subscription model. However, Twitter’s Investor Relations account tweeted earlier in March 2021 that users will see the planned features being tested in public. “…hopefully, you’ll see some of these products roll out as well,” the tweet added.

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Written by John Paul Joaquin