It’s official: everyone can use it Substack Notes(Opens in a new tab) now.
This new feature from Substack, a newsletter platform, allows anyone with an account to share links, images, ideas, and excerpts from their Substack posts. It looks just like your Twitter homepage – without Elon Musk, and with tons of newsletters.
“The feedback also represents the next step in our efforts to build our subscription network — one that holds writers and readers accountable, rewards great work with money, and protects freedom of the press and freedom of expression,” Substak wrote in a blog post. “This work is at the core of Substack’s model, and we believe it will be an important part of a new economic engine of culture.”
Twitter seems to be at war with Substack
This comes in the midst of one of the dumbest social media fights yet. The day after Substack announced their new Notes feature, Twitter began blocking likes, retweets, and comments on tweets that included a link to a Substack newsletter and banned Substack writers from including tweets in their newsletters.
As technology reporter Casey Newton wrote in his Substack newsletter Curriculum(Opens in a new tab)which has been “repacked” into my Substack Notes feed(Opens in a new tab)Musk’s chaotic reaction to just developing Notes raised an unreleased feature, overnight, on par with one of the most important social feeds in the world. That certainly means more people are playing a close interest in the product with Substack running it. Notes for the audience”.
It’s unlikely that Substack Notes will ever replace Twitter – Substack is a niche designed specifically for writers, while Twitter is open to a much larger audience. But if Musk hopes to neutralize Substack Notes, a war between the two systems will likely have the opposite effect. Instead of directing Twitter users and Substack writers to Twitter’s newsletter platform, he is send those(Opens in a new tab) Book right in the lane(Opens in a new tab) Embrace Substack(Opens in a new tab).