Twitter is testing a feature that makes it even more enticing to use its recently acquired Revue newsletter platform: the ability to subscribe to a newsletter directly from a Twitter profile, without having to follow a link to a separate website. The feature can be enabled by all Revue newsletter writers, but the button is initially only being shown to a test group of Twitter users on Android and the web.
The subscribe button has to be turned on in Revue’s settings before it can show up on Twitter. Visually, the new button and newsletter card appear underneath your Twitter bio almost like a pinned tweet, populated with the title of your Revue newsletter, a photo, a short description, and the actual subscribe button. Tapping the button pulls up a dialog box reminding you what you’re getting in to (this person you follow on Twitter will now have your email) and lets you read a sample issue of the newsletter and then subscribe.
It’s here
Today, we’re starting to test a feature that allows people to subscribe to your Revue newsletter directly from your Twitter profile.
It’s available to all Revue creators immediately. To start though, your newsletters will show only for a test group on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/YDa1aOGeLM
— Revue (@revue) August 19, 2021
It’s a super simple feature, but possibly a very meaningful one for someone considering starting a newsletter — or transitioning to Twitter’s platform. While writing a newsletter can theoretically be successfully done by anyone, financially successful newsletters are often written by people with an established writing career, an established following, or both. Twitter’s now made it dramatically easier to convert a following into subscribers with a few taps. That’s a lot less clunky than having a Substack link in your profile.
Easy newsletter subscriptions are just the latest offering in Twitter’s rapidly expanding suite of features, several of which are also hosted on the profile page. The company began experimenting with collecting direct payments with a Tip Jar feature in May. It’s also enabled a shopping “carousel” for select brands that lets you buy products without leaving Twitter. The profile page is a space often used by creators to link to competing newsletter and subscription products, but if Twitter gets its way, you might never leave its app.
