Twitter Blue Now Available in US, New Zealand; Will Allow Users to Undo Tweets, Read Ad-Free News

Twitter Blue is now rolling out to users in the United States and New Zealand, the company announced on Tuesday. The subscription service offered by the microblogging platform brings in a host of features such as the ability to undo tweets and reading some news articles without advertisements, among others. With Twitter Blue subscriptions, the social media giant is looking to diversify its revenue sources.

Twitter Blue, which will cost $2.99 (roughly Rs. 222) per month in the US, will now include the ability to read some news articles without ads, upload longer videos and customise the navigation bar in the Twitter app.

One of the most handy features of Twitter Blue is the ability to undo tweets. With this, subscribers will have a time limit of 60 seconds to preview and make changes to a tweet before it's made public. While Twitter still hasn't introduced a much-demanded “Edit Tweet” feature, the ability to undo tweets before posting may help users avoid unwanted typos or other errors in their posts, as pointed out by renowned sci-fi author John Scalzi.

The San Francisco-based company, which earns most of its money by selling advertising, is eyeing more consistent sources of revenue by selling access to certain features to heavy Twitter users who flock to the site for news and current events.

Twitter Blue subscribers can read articles from publications like the Washington Post, USA Today and Reuters without advertisements. A portion of the user's Twitter Blue subscription will go to the news organisations, Twitter said.

Subscribers can also pin important conversations to the top of the messaging inbox and change the colour theme of their Twitter app. Users can also post longer videos (up to 10 minutes) on the Web.

Subscribing to Twitter Blue is simple and easy as well. All a user needs to do is click on Twitter Blue from the main menu and tap on Subscribe.

Twitter began rolling out the subscription service in June, launching it first in Canada and Australia. The company declined to say how many subscribers it has.