Twitter has spent the last several months experimenting with different ways it may allow its influencers to monetize on the platform. First, it was newsletters (following the Revue acquisition), then the Super Follow.

Now, Twitter's trying something a little more direct. What if you could just visit someone's profile and leave them a tip from there?

Twitter Continues to Explore Monetization Options

Reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wong has once again spoiled what could be Twitter's next upcoming feature: the ability to tip other users for their fantastic tweets.

Twitter hasn't officially announced the addition of the Tip Jar—so this feature may not actually get released—but it's still interesting to see what the company's testing out.

We first heard of Twitter adding a Tip Jar in March, when Wong uploaded a screenshot of the given options for tipping. Wong said that Twitter allowed you to enter usernames for the following online payment platforms:

  • Bandcamp
  • Cash App
  • Patreon
  • PayPal
  • Venmo

At the time, however, it appeared to be a feature specific to Spaces, the platform's audio chatrooms. That doesn't seem to be the case anymore—Twitter seems to have moved the Tip Jar from the settings menu in Spaces to the top right corner of the user profile.

Twitter on a smartphone

You might think that this feature feels a little out of place for a social media site (especially one like Twitter, where online discussion can get really wild really quickly), but it all makes sense when you take into account that Twitter started testing Business Profiles recently.

Not everyone uses Twitter for personal life updates, as evidenced by "institutional accounts" used by the US government and the growing number of business professionals on the platform. So this tipping feature might actually be Twitter's best shot at introducing payments between its users.

Will Spaces' Quick Development Help It Steal Clubhouse's Popularity?

When Twitter announced Spaces, netizens were quick to call it a yet another clone of invite-only app Clubhouse. That may be true, but even if you don't think it has a very original concept, the fact remains that Spaces launched on Android before Clubhouse, and may even beat it to desktop computers.

Clubhouse is confirmed to be coming to Android soon, though we think it has to act fast if it wants to actually pull in everyone that's interested in the app. If the alternatives beat Clubhouse to all the features that its users desperately want, it won't matter that whether or not it was "first."