Twitter has been the go-to social network for real-time information and interaction since its founding. Media, politicians, and brands from various sectors have used this platform to publish content that has an immediate impact.
However, Twitter has undergone a series of changes since it came under the ownership of Elon Musk, the South African-American mogul known for founding companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and Neuralink. On October 27, 2022, he officially became the owner of Twitter, and since then, the platform has received several modifications.
All the changes on Twitter by Elon Musk
Below we list all the changes that have appeared on Twitter since Elon Musk’s delegation to the social network, some of which are very important for public figures, companies or influencers.
1️⃣ Twitter Blue: The paid suscription on Twitter
The main change that Elon Musk applied to the popular microblogging social network was Twitter Blue, a monthly subscription that adds benefits for users who pay for it. It costs $9.99 per month if paid from a PC and renews once a month.
Twitter Blue Benefits
✅ Blue verification badge for Twitter Blue subscribers. These profiles are verified with a blue symbol, although previously there were verified accounts based on previous criteria. Starting in April 2023, symbols for accounts verified by relevance criteria will be removed, and only Twitter Blue accounts will be verified.
✍🏻 Edit tweets within a 30-minute window and up to 5 times per post. In addition, character count is increased from 280 to 4000.
↩️ Undo tweets after hitting the publish button. For a few seconds, users can cancel the process and go back to the editing option.
📲 Two-step SMS authentication to increase account security. It will only be available for Twitter Blue users.
⏯️ Post 1080p videos up to 60 minutes from a computer or up to 10 minutes from mobile devices.
📢 Less advertising for Twitter Blue users. They will see half as many ads as regular accounts.
👤 NFT profile pictures that can be linked to a cryptocurrency wallet. Twitter users can choose an NFT as their avatar or profile picture.
📁 Favorites folders to organize marked tweets in an unlimited and private way.
🎨 Customized themes and app icons with a greater variety of colors and app personalization.
🎧 Spaces tab for a new interface that facilitates access to audio content.
📝 Featured articles in the network of Twitter Blue users, both the most shared by close accounts and the most popular.
🧭 Customized navigation for verified accounts that decide what appears on their navigation bar.
📖 More comfortable and enjoyable thread reading mode.
2️⃣ Changes to Twitter’s algorithm
In addition, Elon Musk announced more changes that would be applied from April 15, 2023.
Users with Twitter Blue verified accounts will have greater visibility and priority in the algorithm, as they will appear in the For You section and at the top of the timeline when searching.
Note that the accounts you follow will also appear in For You, but with less priority.
However, profiles that you do not know and that are not verified will not have the possibility of appearing in either For You or Following.
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3️⃣ Reactivation of blocked accounts
After declaring that the new policy of Twitter is “freedom of expression,” in which negative tweets or those that incite hatred will be “removed” but not banned, Musk restored several accounts that had been suspended, including those of Donald Trump, Jordan Peterson, and Kathy Griffin (Musk restored Trump’s account after conducting a Twitter poll: 51.8% of the fifteen million respondents voted “yes” to returning the former US President’s account).
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4️⃣More metrics in tweets
Each tweet now publicly displays how many views it has received, an update that Musk made in an effort to show how “Twitter is much more alive than people think.”
The visit count information was already available in the data displayed by the account analysis provided by Twitter to all users who activate it.
However, this new feature directly displays the view count below the tweet, without having to press the ‘View Tweet statistics’ button.
5️⃣ See Twitter only on Twitter
The latest change is the suspension of access to Twitter’s API, which is the system that other platforms use to communicate with Twitter.
For example, this affects you if you usually use a different platform to manage the different social media accounts you have instead of accessing Twitter’s application or website directly.
It is not clear, however, whether accounts that want to use Twitter’s free API must be verified with the blue badge. This badge, as we remember, is obtained by paying $8 per month for Twitter Blue and also allows the social network to verify the user’s identity.
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