Micro-blogging site Twitter has rolled out a new feature known as ‘Tip Jar’, which allows people to send money to their favourite users. Tip Jar will be available to select groups of users including creators, journalists, experts, and nonprofits. It will be available to only those who use Twitter in English and Twitter will not take any cut from the tips.
The users will know the feature is available to them when they receive a prompt from the company. Once a user activates Tip Jar on their account, they will be able to connect it to popular payment platforms such as Cash App, PayPal, Venmo, Patreon, and Bandcamp.
“Tip Jar is an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversation on Twitter. This is a first step in our work to create new ways for people to receive and show support on Twitter – with money,” Twitter said in a blog post.
Tip Jar is available on Android and iOS, and it will be visible through a Tip Jar icon next to the follow button on the profile. Interested users can tap on that icon and choose among the list of payment options to send a tip.
Twitter has, since a long time been used to promote people’s ventures, gain more followers, and even get donations in some cases. We have all come across viral tweets, where the author has plugged their work, or social media profile, or a petition form, or in some cases, links for donations or tips in a threaded tweet. Hence, it makes sense for Twitter to introduce a Tip Jar feature, so that such users can make an extra buck, if their tweet goes viral.
The only way to access Tip Jar right now is by navigating to a user’s profile. This means that sending someone money for a tweet will take a bit more effort than just liking or comment, or eve re-tweeting a tweet.
