X now allows Premium subscribers to hide likes and verify their real IDs.

X now allows Premium subscribers to hide likes and verify their real IDs.

X Premium: New Features and the Quest for Subscribers

X, formerly known as Twitter, has introduced some exciting new features exclusively for its X Premium subscribers. This $8-per-month subscription service, formerly called Twitter Blue, aims to provide enhanced features and benefits for its paying users.

Hide Your Likes

One of the new features announced by X is the ability for Premium users to hide their liked posts. Normally, the likes tab is visible on a user’s profile, allowing visitors to see the feed of posts that the user has liked. However, with this new feature, Premium subscribers can now choose to hide their likes from public view.

To access this option, Premium subscribers can click on Premium, then Preferences, and followed by Early Access. Under the Profile Customization tab, they will find a checkbox that allows them to hide the likes tab. This feature addresses an issue that many users have faced over the years – the visibility of their liked posts.

Likes, unlike retweets, are not broadcasted to a user’s followers, but they can still be seen by others on the platform. This has caused problems for some users, including politicians and even X owner Elon Musk, who accidentally liked explicit or controversial content. While X is providing this option, Elon Musk himself is encouraging users to keep their likes open. He suggests that users who want to privately save posts should utilize the built-in bookmarks option instead of liking the content.

Verify Your Account with a Real ID

In addition to the hiding likes feature, X Premium subscribers can now verify their accounts using a real ID. This new option, found under the Verification section in X Premium settings, requires users to upload a photo of an official government ID as well as a selfie. To enable this verification, X has partnered with Au10tix, an ID verification company that uses biometric data for identification purposes.

X highlights the benefits of verifying your ID with the platform. Users who enable ID verification will have an ID verification label displayed on their profile, visible to visitors who click on their blue checkmark. This label aims to “increase trust from other users.” Additionally, X promises “prioritized support” for users with ID verification and plans to introduce further perks, such as expedited blue checkmark verification review. Verified users will also have more flexibility in changing their profile photo, display name, or username.

While these new features cater to X Premium subscribers, it remains uncertain whether they will convince more users to sign up for the company’s struggling subscription service. Despite X’s efforts to focus on its paying subscribers, the company has yet to provide a real value proposition that appeals to the majority of its users. Since its launch around 10 months ago, less than a million users out of X’s hundreds of millions of active users have subscribed to the paid service.

X continues to evolve with new features, but it needs to find a way to attract a larger user base to its Premium service. As the competition in the social media landscape intensifies, X must clearly communicate the benefits and added value that its subscription service provides. Only then will X be able to tap into the vast potential of its user base and drive greater adoption of X Premium.