TweetDeck goes premium: Elon Musk reserves access for Blue subscription users

Signing in now prompts you to sign up for X Premium.

TweetDeck, now known as the new X Pro, on August 16 transitioned into a paid service that would only be available to Blue subscribers through a monthly or yearly subscription charge.

Users are now prompted to avail of the subscription for X Pro after signing in.

TweetDeck was once valued for its ability to support customised feeds and worked well for a variety of users. Unfortunately, a fee now to use the service is bad news for news organisations, journalists, businesses, and social media managers.

In a recent release on July 3, the parent company, X, formerly known as Twitter, stipulated that user verification is required for access to TweetDeck.

When it claimed that an enhanced version of TweetDeck with new features will go into effect in 30 days, it wasn't clear at the time if X would charge users for X Pro.

Now, X has actually made TweetDeck a premium service as announced.

X Pro Blue Subscription price and features

The popup window contains information on the annual and monthly subscription fees for the Blue subscription.

The monthly cost of the X Pro Blue subscription is Rs 650, while the annual cost is Rs 7,800. Users can get the X Pro annual membership at a discount, for Rs 6,800 now.

The social media platform says user experience is improved with X Pro due to its improved features, which include longer post lengths, longer video posts and HD video uploads, prioritised rankings in conversations and search, and a number of other advantages. All the existing Blue features, including Edit Tweet and Bookmark Folders, will remain for X Pro, it said.

X for verified and unverified users

The Elon Musk-owned social media company, looking to double down on its monetisation efforts, introduced on February 9 in India a revamped Twitter, now X, Blue subscription giving users a verified checkmark and a range of additional features including the ability to edit tweets.

The service is currently available for a monthly fee of Rs 650 on the web and Rs 900 on mobile devices. Twitter also offers a discounted annual plan of Rs 6,800 per year, which translates to Rs 566.67 per month.

Musk faces a massive challenge to turn around the debt-laden company by revving up its revenues.

Daily limit on DMs for unverified accounts

Elon Musk on July 22 this year announced that Twitter would implement daily limits on the number of direct messages (DM) unverified accounts can send on the platform, in its move to boost signups for its subscription service Twitter Blue.

Prior to this, X owner Elon Musk recently imposed a "temporary" limit on the number of tweets users can read on a daily basis. The company was also not letting users access tweets or comments on the web unless they were logged in to an account, a move that eventually backtracked.