Twitter has long been completely free to use, but that will change with the launch of the new Super Follow feature. Twitter will still be free to use, but users will be able to charge followers for access to additional content.

In other words, Twitter is emulating Patreon and taking some steps to allow influential followers to monetize their tweets.

Twitter has already posted a mockup of the Super Follow feature, showing us what content will be locked behind a paywall. This includes special supporter badges, subscriber-only newsletters, bonus tweets, access to exclusive community groups, and even exclusive deals and discounts. Access to these hypothetical benefits costs $4.99 per month.

While there are still many unknowns about SuperFollows, it will likely be similar to direct payment tools offered by other companies. In such a case, the content creator sets the price and perks, and Twitter takes the cut for itself. Unfortunately, it is not clear how much Twitter would benefit.

Twitter also announced a new feature called Communities. From what I've heard, this is essentially the same as Facebook groups. That is, users will be able to create and join groups around a specific topic and see more tweets about that topic.

Like many closed Facebook groups, one can only hope that the Twitter community will not become a massive moderation headache. Nevertheless, this feature would help make Twitter a bit more personal and make it easier for users to discover which accounts to follow.

Neither feature has been announced yet as to when they will be released; Twitter has labeled them as "what's next," but without more details, it is hard to say when they will come.