Many marketers, journalists and news junkies saw a paywall on Wednesday morning that they had been dreading: X, formerly known as Twitter, began charging users to access TweetDeck.
Users of TweetDeck, now known as X Pro, can view and customize several feeds that are updated in real time. After it became one of the most popular ways for individuals to access the website, Twitter bought the platform in 2011.
X stated in a post in July that the service would stop being a free feature and instead become a subscriber-only function. Elon Musk, the owner of the website, introduced X Premium as a strategy to increase revenue for the business, and as of this Wednesday, those who want access to X Pro will have to pay for it. Users pay $84 for the subscription each year.
Along with additional perks like access to longer posts, fewer advertisements, and prioritised rankings in answers and searches, customers of X Premium will also see a blue checkmark in their account. The site, which was once known as Twitter Blue, had a rocky start when it was removed in November as a result of people creating profiles pretending to be well-known brands and personalities. Even after its December relaunch, impersonation issues persisted with Twitter Blue.
Twitter was purchased by Musk, the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, late last year for $44 billion. Employees and users noticed his influence right away because he implemented significant job cuts in addition to a number of significant new platform improvements and policy changes.
Most recently, the business started a comprehensive redesign that Musk disclosed in July. Twitter changed to the letter X after retiring its iconic blue and white bird logo. It didn’t take long for the names of Twitter’s services, such TweetDeck, to change.
