The idea of paying for X — the social network formerly known as Twitter — may have drawn criticism from users all over the world since owner Elon Musk first announced the change roughly a year ago.
But now, users will finally have an array of premium different options, including new ad-free browsing, to choose from if they’re willing to take the plunge, depending on what they’re looking for.
What are the new X subscriptions?
On Friday, Musk announced a two-tiered approach for users, depending on how much cash they are willing to put down.
One tier will reportedly be at “lower cost with all features, but no reduction in ads”.
This means users will get access to features like being able to edit their Tweets, direct message users who don’t follow them, and a Blue Checkmark symbol to prove they’ve been verified by the platform, but will still get ads on their newsfeed.
The other is “more expensive, but has no ads”, according to Musk.
Unfortunately, Musk didn’t give much of a steer about when these will actually land, saying only that they are meant to come “soon”.
How much will X subscriptions cost?
Consumers in the UK using iOS or Android currently need to pay £11 a month to get a Twitter premium account under the current one-size-fits-all system, though desktop version users can get an annual subscription for just £100.
Musk failed to give much concrete detail about the costs of the new subscriptions either.
Reports about the new subscription system haven't exactly been consistent either, earlier this month Bloomberg reported that X was working on a "three-tier" model, where those in the middle-priced bracket would be served half the ads they would be normally.
Musk has consistently claimed that forcing users to pay will go a long way to reducing the problem of bots and fake accounts, a problem which has historically plagued the platform.
At one point, it was estimated by data analysis firm Cyabra that spam and bot accounts made up around 11 per cent of Twitter’s total users before he bought the platform in March of last year.
This may be the last month of X as a completely free service. X rolled out a mandatory $1 annual subscription in New Zealand and the Philippines for new users signing up for the service.
At the time of writing, we had no idea about when this mandatory annual subscription fee could one day come to the UK.
Looking for Twitter alternatives?
But if you're still not fond of the idea of paying for X, there are emerging new platforms out there.
Facebook and Instagram owner Meta launched “Threads”, an X competitor with a largely similar feature set back in July 2023.
Threads gained over 100 million users in its first five days, though records show active users plummeted to roughly 8 million towards the end of the month.
Bluesky, another Twitter alternative run by ex-Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, reportedly hit over 1.5 million subscribers this month, though you’ll need an invite from an existing user to use the service.
