Not long ago, Twitter announced the Super Follow feature, an attempt to improve the social network's monetization and generate payments for the profiles of influencers and content creators. However, it seems that another path to monetization is also being considered: tips, sent directly to the profile through a button.
The researcher Jane Manchun Wong is known for turning apps inside out in search of new features. Using reverse engineering, that is, when an app is dissected so that some disabled code snippets work, she discovered one of Twitter's yet-to-be-announced projects. Often these snippets are “forgotten” in an official update for practical reasons for programmers to promote testing, but in other cases, they are clues of what's to come. With a few changes, she managed to get visual results of this new feature, which she shared on her profile on the social network.
Twitter is working on Tip Jar right on the user profile https://t.co/kqzQmiDFKc pic.twitter.com/VacGyJJ8DU
- Jane Manchun Wong (@wongmjane) April 22, 2021
Tipping across multiple platforms
If Twitter doesn’t change the new feature before it’s released — if it ever does — the payments button for profiles will be located next to other shortcuts aligned with the user’s profile image. Clicking it will expand options for tipping via Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo.
The user must indicate their details on each platform in their profile settings. This way, the follower interested in giving a tip would be taken directly to the transfer page intended for that person.
Twitter declined to comment on the discovery of tests for profile payments. After all, this would be a feature never announced by the social network, which has been focusing its current efforts on Spaces — a kind of Clubhouse — and other tools already announced. Speaking of Spaces, it was there that the idea of direct contributions, or tips, for users emerged, as we show here. If it really goes ahead, this payment project for profiles could join other unofficial initiatives, such as the arrival of reactions to the platform.
Through which channels you reach those people, classic and out of the box. The Verge