One of the many things that have changed over on Twitter since Elon Musk’s $44 billion buyout is the Twitter Blue subscription. Now, it’s changing again, but this time it’s finally getting a feature that Musk promised a while ago.
CEO Elon Musk promised back in November 2022 that Blue subscribers would enjoy seeing “half as many ads” as those who don’t pay up for the subscription. Now, in April 2023, he’s finally made good on that promise. But an updated Twitter support page both adds clarity and disappointment to proceedings, leaving subscribers with something that doesn’t quite match what they thought they were getting.
Twitter Blue, now with fewer ads, but not always
In that updated support document, Twitter says that people will see around 50% fewer ads indeed. But that only applies to some of their timelines.
“Half ads: See approximately 50% fewer ads in the For You and Following timelines,” Twitter’s explanation begins. “As you scroll, you will see approximately twice as many organic or non-promoted Tweets placed in between promoted Tweets or ads.”
The explanation continues, adding that there may be times when there are more or fewer tweets between ads, although it doesn’t make it clear why that is.
Twitter also says that this doesn’t include all parts of the app, saying that it “does not apply to promoted content elsewhere on Twitter, including but not limited to ads on profiles, ads in Tweet replies, promoted events in Explore, promoted trends, and promoted accounts to follow.”
The upshot of all that appears to be that you’ll see just as many ads as before when viewing things like lists, not to mention your replies and essentially everywhere that isn’t the main feed – whether or not you choose to go with the For You or Following timeline.
Twitter Blue is of course not free. It’s available worldwide now and costs $7.99/£6.99/€7.99 per month, although that could increase depending on the platform you choose to sign up using. You can see a full breakdown of pricing per country on Twitter’s website.
