Twitter Blue was announced in June and launched immediately thereafter in Canada and Australia. The subscription service, which allows users extra time to delete their embarrassing tweets or group their favorites, could arrive in India soon, if one were to go by recent reports.
Eagle-eyed folks at 91mobiles spotted the Twitter Blue icon on social media handles and promptly brought out the fact that Twitter Blue's rollout in India is imminent. So, that's a bit of good news for the country, which proudly welcomed the new Twitter CEO Parag Agarwal as a fellow Indian.
The timing is spot on, but...
In fact, the micro-blogging site got on to the wrong side of India's often trigger-happy 'Tweeple' when the Twitter handle of Prime Minister Narendra Modi got hacked for the second time. What got everyone's goat is that the break-in happened at a time when the the Modi administration was discussing its policy on cryptocurrency.
Of course, we cannot say by when Twitter plans to rollout the subscription service in India. Especially since the website claimed that a blue icon added to a grey-toned side bar on their social media handle didn't respond when clicked. It flashed their standard response of something having gone wrong and to try a reload.
However, the bigger question is whether the micro-blogging site, which has been on a constant battle to up revenues, will actually attract The Argumentative Indian to cough up Rs.269 a month for a set of features they may not really care for? Before delving into it, let's first understand what Twitter Blue offers...
- Ability to turn threads into a reader mode
- Undo tweet when sent
- Organize favourite tweets into a collection section
- Up to six color themes
- Up to eight custom app icons
If you require some use-case scenarios and detailed explanation around the features that Twitter Blue brings, all you need to do is browse through their blog post dated June 3. What is noteworthy is that the authors are quick to add that they were open to feedback and corrective measures in the future.
However, alert users would note the one glaring omission of a feature that many of us would have liked. There is no way that we can block off irritating sponsored posts and ads even when we pay upfront. Why would Twitter make us pay and then foist a whole lot of ads that obviously doesn't make us happy?
Twitter users, barring the self-proclaimed influencers, may not find the subscription service of great use, given that most are the shoot-and-scoot kind. Why would one care about a spelling error when all they are looking for is to have some fun at some other's expense?
The Bookmark feature could be useful for journalist and researchers as it helps in organizing their information. Once again, this feature would make little sense to the common users who seldom revisit a tweet, on their timeline or of those they follow. The same holds good for the Reader mode as well. The discerning user could do with some easy reading options, but the casual ones hardly care how Twitter organizes its feeds on their screen.
The one thing that users may love is the option of customizing app icons, changing colour themes and similar stuff. The question though is would they cough up money to access these? Let's wait and see.
