Posts Tagged: Longform
You can write long-form articles on X if you pay for Premium+
Journalists, creators and long-winded VCs on X now have a new way to be exhausting on main. X now allows verified organizations and Premium+ subscribers to publish long-form “Articles."
The feature adds a basic text-editing interface that includes embedded media and some text formatting options, like the ability to make bulleted lists. It also appears that articles can be longer than the 25,000-character limit currently in place for premium subscribers’ “longer posts” feature. According to my initial tests, I hit the character limit for articles at just over 100,000 characters or about 15,000 words.
Here’s what the editing interface looks like:
Notably, Twitter began working on longer form posts long before Elon Musk’s takeover of the company. The company showed off an early version, originally called “Notes” in 2022, as it looked to lure newsletter writers and other creators to the service. Musk confirmed last summer that the publishing tools were still in the works.
The rollout of publishing tools is notable as Musk has often been hostile to journalists on his platform. Last year, Musk directed a change to X’s recommendation algorithm so that links to newsletter platform Substack would not appear in users’ “For You” feeds, which has throttled many independent writers’ reach on the service. X also stripped headlines from news stories shared on the platform last fall (headlines eventually returned, in a much smaller font).
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/you-can-write-long-form-articles-on-x-if-you-pay-for-premium-005707599.html?src=rss
Engadget is a web magazine with obsessive daily coverage of everything new in gadgets and consumer electronics
Long-form text sharing is coming to Twitter
Twitter will soon include a feature allowing users to add long-form text to their tweets, company owner and CEO Elon Musk announced on Saturday. Musk didn’t say when the functionality would arrive, but promised it would end the “absurdity of notepad screenshots.” He added that the company also plans to work on additional tools for creator monetization and enhancements to the platform’s search functionality. “Search within Twitter reminds me of Infoseek in ’98! That will also get a lot better pronto,” he wrote.
Twitter will soon add ability to attach long-form text to tweets, ending absurdity of notepad screenshots
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 5, 2022
After Musk made the announcement, NBC News reporter Ben Collins was quick to point out that Twitter had been testing a text-sharing sharing feature before Musk’s takeover. “He’s taking credit here for a bunch of work that some employees did before he laid them off,” he said. Indeed, at the start of the year Jane Manchun Wong, who’s known for experimental features in apps, discovered evidence Twitter was working on an “Articles” feature for posting longer messages.
On Saturday, Twitter also began putting in place some of the infrastructure needed to support its revamped Twitter Blue subscription. The service will allow users to pay $ 8 per month to verify their account and gain access to a handful of other features, including the ability to post longer videos and see fewer ads. Musk previously promised Twitter would work on supporting content creators but has yet to share details on how the company plans to do that. Since his takeover of the company, a number of high-profile users have left Twitter, including Nibellion, the owner of one of the most popular gaming news accounts on the platform.
Update 7:25PM ET: Added historical context about Musk’s announcement.