This New Twitter Feature Elon Musk Just Announced Actually Sounds Useful
Elon Musk is introducing — or, to put it more accurately, bringing back — a long-form note-writing feature to Twitter. The idea is to end the hassle of composing threads due to the character limitation or posting screenshots of content written elsewhere. Earlier today, the new Twitter CEO tweeted that the social media platform is adding the "ability to attach long-form text to tweets."
The latest feature announcement is rather surprising. Recent reports suggest that following Musk's takeover, the Note feature — which Twitter has been testing since June — was put on an indefinite hiatus. Rolled out as part of the Twitter Write project, the Note system offered users a basic text editor that allowed them to write an article of up to 2,500 words in a newsletter-like format.
A writer could add photos and URLs in the long-form note, and tweet it just like a regular article. Musk says the long-form text feature will be added "soon" to the platform but hasn't provided any concrete timeline for when exactly it will be rolled out and whether it will be exclusive to Twitter Blue subscribers willing to part ways with $7.99 each month.
Subscribe to the note series and tip the writer, too
Answering user queries about the upcoming long-form tweeting feature and whether it will allow users to subscribe or tip the writer, Musk answered that it will indeed be possible. To recall, Twitter already has a tipping feature and it even accepts donations in the form of crypto coins. The subscription part, however, is interesting. Twitter is reportedly shutting down its newsletter platform called Revue later this year. It appears that Musk wants to take the newsletter subscription formula and tie it to the long-form content format, while also adding a donation system into the mix.
It is unclear how the UI of Twitter's upcoming feature will shape up, but when a user asked if it is actually Twitter Notes, Musk replied it will be "something like that." Interestingly, a former Twitter employee working with the Twitter Blue team mentioned that Musk laid off the entire team that developed the note feature (via Twitter). Musk has actually shut down entire departments and initiated drastic reductions in the workforce across the entire company, while simultaneously accelerating the product development. The company is currently working on bringing back Vine to take on TikTok, as well as a paywalled video feature.