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Elon Musk Shares Vision For “Twitter 2.0”

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2 years ago

November 29, 2022

Elon Musk Shares Vision For “Twitter 2.0”

Twitter CEO Elon Musk reveals six ways he plans to turn Twitter into an “everything app,” which includes longform tweets, encrypted DMs, user-to-user payments, and more.

In a series of slides prefaced with the title “Twitter 2.0,” Musk presented his plans at an internal meeting:

Slides from my Twitter company talk pic.twitter.com/8LLXrwylta
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) November 27, 2022

The slides reveal the following goals for the future of Twitter:

Advertising as entertainment
Video
Longform tweets
Encrypted DMs
Longform tweets
Relaunch Blue Verified

Musk published the slides on Twitter without further context, making it difficult to read too far into his plans for the company. However, we can glean some information based on the mock-up screenshots on each slide.

Advertising As Entertainment

Musk plans to make advertising on Twitter more entertaining, showing an example of an ad from HBO Max that reads like a Buzzfeed quiz.

Screenshot from: twitter.com/elonmusk, November 2022.

The text reads:

“Are you Targaryan, Valeryon, or Hightower?
Like this tweet and I’ll analyze your profile so you know which house you belong to and what role you would have in the world of #LaCasaDelDragon.”

For context, the advertisement is for the show House of Dragons, a spin-off of Game of Thrones.

The ad copy reminds me of those Buzzfeed quizzes where you answer a series of questions to determine which character of a TV show you would be.

The virality of those quizzes leads me to believe Twitter’s direction for advertising could generate meaningful engagement.

Is this form of advertising likely to draw in new customers who aren’t familiar with the product already? Probably not, but it could be an effective way to raise brand awareness.

Video

Containing only a thumbnail and placeholder text, the above example doesn’t allow for much speculation about Musk’s plans for video on Twitter.

Screenshot from: twitter.com/elonmusk, November 2022.

However, if Musk’s tweets are anything to go by, his plans could include bringing back the short-form video app Vine:

Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022

Musk may also be planning to compete with YouTube, claiming he can offer higher payouts. Mr. Beast, YouTube’s most popular creator, is skeptical of that claim:

Bring back Vine?
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 31, 2022

Longform Tweets

Screenshot from: twitter.com/elonmusk, November 2022.

Musk includes a screenshot of Twitter’s Notes feature to illustrate his plans for longform tweets.

Twitter began testing Notes with a limited number of writers earlier this year.

✨ Introducing: Notes ✨
We’re testing a way to write longer on Twitter. pic.twitter.com/SnrS4Q6toX
— Twitter Write (@TwitterWrite) June 22, 2022
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You can see this feature in action by visiting the @TwitterWrites account page and navigating to the Notes tab.

Encrypted DMs

Screenshot from: twitter.com/elonmusk, November 2022.

This feature is self-explanatory.

Encrypted DMs are becoming an industry standard for social media sites. Meta introduced end-to-end encryption for its messaging tools in January, and now Twitter is following suit.

Reverse engineering expert Jane M. Wong recently uncovered evidence of Twitter’s encrypted DMs, which suggests the update may be ready to launch soon.

(New) Blue Verified

Screenshot from: twitter.com/elonmusk, November 2022.

The upcoming relaunch of Blue Verified will include the following features:

A blue ‘verified’ checkmark
Priority placement at the top of replies, mentions, and search results
See 50% fewer ads
Upload longer videos
Get early access to new features

The text at the bottom of Musk’s slide indicates the $7.99 per month pricing is a “limited time offer,” suggesting the price may increase in the future unless users lock in now.