Twitter Blue: What to know about the subscription and features, including undo tweets

For those longing for more control over their tweets, your time has come. On Tuesday, Twitter rolled out Twitter Blue, a subscription service that (finally) allows you to undo a tweet, among other desired features.

First available in Australia and Canada back in June, the paid version is now open for users in the US and New Zealand.

The premium service also allows you to read news ad-free, edit a published tweet, organize your bookmarks into folders, pin conversations in your DMs, upload videos up to 10 minutes long and more.

If you're interested in learning more about all the exclusive features you can get only on Twitter Blue, here's everything you need to know about the new premium monthly subscription service. For more on Twitter, here's how to avoid Twitter scams. Here's how to stop Facebook from tracking you across the web and how to find and delete your Google data now.

What is Twitter Blue and what does it do?

Twitter Blue is a subscription service that offers exclusive features for a monthly fee. On Twitter, you'll frequently see people talk about which features Twitter should have -- and several of the most popular requests have made their way into the paid service.

The most prominent of these features is undoubtedly Undo Tweet -- which isn't exactly the edit tool that some have requested, but it does offer a way to quickly fix a published tweet. Here's what comes with a Twitter Blue subscription:

• Undo Tweet: Not quite an edit tool, but you can preview a tweet after publishing it and revise it. You have up to 60 seconds to undo a tweet, reply or thread you've posted to Twitter.
• Ad-free articles: Read stories from The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, BuzzFeed, Rolling Stone and more -- without advertisements. More than 45 sites are available with others coming. Also, a piece of your subscription fee goes directly to these sites. Note that "ad-free" applies just to these articles and not elsewhere in Twitter.
• Reader for threads: Long threads are now easier to read thanks to the new Reader Mode. As you scroll through a thread, large tiles will showcase each tweet underneath, displaying only the tweet and any accompanying videos or photos. Distractions like the username, avatar, date and numbers are all gone when enabled. You can also customize text size.
• Bookmark folders: Bookmark tweets? Now you can organize your messy bookmarks into folders so that they're easier to find. Whenever you bookmark a tweet, you'll be asked if you want to add it to a folder.
• Custom navigation: If Twitter's navigation bar doesn't work quite like you want, you can customize it and add bookmarks, lists, profile and monetization icons (iOS only).
• App Icons: You now choose a different Twitter app icon for your home screen: eight permanent icons and three seasonal ones (iOS only)
• Themes: Choose between six theme colors: blue (original), yellow, red, purple, orange and green (iOS only).
• Experimental features: Use unreleased experimental features, such as pinned DM conversations and 10-minute long video uploads (desktop only).

How much does Twitter Blue cost?

Here's how much a Twitter Blue subscription will cost per month:

• US$3
• AU$4.49
• CA$3.49
• NZ$4.49

However, these prices might change. On the Twitter Blue subscription page, Twitter calls this an"introductory price." 

Is free Twitter going away?

No, the Twitter you know is still available and free to use. Twitter Blue is an opt-in service.

Is my account eligible for Twitter Blue?

Twitter Blue is currently available on iOS, Android and the web in four countries across the globe: US, Australia, Canada and New Zealand. Although the paid service may eventually spread to other countries, a company spokesperson told CNET, there are currently no plans for a bigger roll out.

How to sign up for Twitter Blue

You can subscribe to Twitter Blue on your mobile phone or from your computer. 

On iOS or Android, do the following:

1. Open the Twitter app.

2. Tap your profile image in the top left corner to access the Profile menu.

3. Tap Twitter Blue.

4. Tap the Subscribe button at the bottom of the page.

5. Make a payment (including  Apple Pay on iOS or Google Play on Android).

If you're on the web, signing up for Twitter Blue is slightly different:

1. Go to the Twitter website.

2. On the left, in the Profile menu, click More.

3. Click Twitter Blue.

4. Click the Subscribe button at the bottom of the page.

5. Make a payment (made via Stripe).

Now that I have Twitter Blue, how do I undo a tweet?

Once you have Twitter Blue, you can immediately begin to undo original tweets, replies, threads, quote tweets and poll tweets. After firing off a tweet, you'll automatically be redirected to your posted tweet, with the opportunity to Send Now -- or permanently post the tweet -- or Undo, which gives you 20 seconds (by default) to go back and make any edits, such as fix grammatical mistakes, tag someone or simply get rid of an embarrassing tweet.

You can customize how Undo Tweet works. In your Profile menu, go into Twitter Blue and tap Undo Tweet. Here you can toggle on and off how it works for different types of tweets and change the amount of time you have to undo a tweet (choose between 5 and 60 seconds).

How do I get pinned conversation, longer video uploads and other experimental features?

Since 2019, Twitter has tested out experimental features via Twitter Developer Labs, a program that allows the developer community to try out features that might possibly make their way to Twitter one day.

Thanks to Twitter Blue, you can now get your hands on many of these beta features, through a setting called Labs. Currently, there are only two features you can test:

• Pinned conversations: Pin any conversation in your DMs to the top of the page.
• Upload longer videos: Upload up to a 10-minute long video to Twitter (only available on desktop).

Eventually, more experimental features will come to Labs for Twitter Blue users. You can get real-time updates at @TwitterBlue.

How to cancel your Twitter Blue subscription

No longer interested in paying for Twitter Blue? Luckily, Twitter lets you pause or cancel your subscription.

1. Using the device that you purchased Twitter Blue on, make your way to the Twitter Blue option in the Profile menu.

2. Next, scroll down and tap Manage subscription. 

As long as you're on the device you used to sign up for the subscription, you can cancel from here. If you do cancel, you'll be able to access your subscription until it ends.

Twitter isn't the only platform making big changes. YouTube is looking to remove dislike counts from their videos and Instagram announced it's testing a new feature to help prevent you from scrolling too much.