One of the major upcoming features that Twitter is promoting to users who sign up for Twitter Blue is the ability to see fewer ads.
When owner Elon Musk announced the paid $8-per-month (or $11-per-month on mobile) subscription service shortly after acquiring the company last year, he was specifically He said(Opens in a new tab) Subscribers get “half the number of ads”.
Now that Twitter has finally shared the details of the ad removal feature, we know that this is not actually the case.
The tweet may have been deleted
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I spotted it for the first time Techcrunch(Opens in a new tab)Twitter has updated its site about Twitter Blue Help page(Opens in a new tab) Which includes more information about the “Half Ads” feature being rolled out. And as it turns out, subscribers don’t actually get “half of the ads.”
Here’s the entire section in detail:
Half the ads: See almost 50% fewer ads in your timelines and follow-up. As you scroll, you’ll see roughly twice as many organic or non-promoted tweets as there are promoted tweets or ads. There may be times when there are more or fewer non-promoted Tweets among the Promoted Tweets. The Half Ads feature does not apply to content promoted elsewhere on Twitter, including but not limited to ads in profiles, ads in Tweet replies, promoted events in Explore, Promoted Trends, and accounts being promoted. Promote it to follow. Blue subscribers will be able to access this feature after reviewing their account for eligibility and applying the blue checkmark.
Let’s choose it.
The first thing to note is that this only affects “for you And the next Timelines. So users don’t see “half as many ads” on Twitter, only those on timelines. That’s the equivalent of paying to sign up for a website that offers an “ad-free” experience, but they only remove ads from the home page.
And Twitter isn’t exactly sticking to the “half,” as the company notes users will see “almost 50 percent less ads.
Subjectively, the ads on those prime timelines are also the least intrusive, as users are already seeing all sorts of algorithmically recommended content that they haven’t specifically requested. Users are used to just scrolling until they stop on something they want to see.
According to Twitter, users who pay for Twitter Blue will receive exactly the same ad experience as users who don’t pay when it comes to “ads on profiles, ads in tweet replies, promoted events in explore, promoted trends, promoted accounts to follow” i.e. anywhere post on Twitter.
Some of the unaffected ads include ads that users cannot escape from because these ad spots follow users around every page on the Twitter website. Other unaffected ads, such as those that appear scattered among users replying to tweet mentions, are some of the most annoying on the platform.
Musk says a pricier, ad-free Twitter Blue option is coming
Late last year, Musk claimed(Opens in a new tab) that the company was working on an expensive Twitter Blue plan that would offer paying subscribers “no ads”. No further details about that plan were announced. However, when it comes to getting users to pay for the platform, Twitter struggles to enroll users even in the $8 Twitter Blue tier.
Power users often, and are the ones most likely to pay for a service Passed when you sign up. It is estimated that only Twitter Blue cracked The subscriber mark reached 500,000 recently, about 4 months after the launch of the service.
It should also be noted that users looking to block Twitter ads don’t even need to pay to do so. They also don’t need a third party ad blocker plugin or extension. Twitter Ads are basically regular tweets from regular Twitter accounts that get promoted in users’ feeds. Users can block accounts whose ads appear in their feed and they will no longer see those ads.
Since Musk’s takeover, Twitter has lost out half from its advertisers. Moreover, top Twitter advertisers who stick with it spend 89 percent less(Opens in a new tab) than they did before Musk, too. So, if a user really wants a nearly “ad-free” Twitter experience, it probably shouldn’t be difficult for them to achieve it on their own. And at no cost.