After the rollout of Spaces to everyone with more than 600 followers, Twitter is from today publicly testing “Tip Jar” which allows certain users to setup and receive payments.
The test is currently for a select few including creators, journalists, experts and non-profits. Twitter suggests a full rollout may happen in the coming future. The good thing is that the select users this is open to are on both iOS and Android operating systems. This time it isn’t an exclusive Android or exclusive iOS feature.
Those chosen to be part of this test can choose whether to turn on the feature, or not. Once the feature is toggled on, the account owners then select which payment mode they are open to accepting.
The Payment modes included are PayPal, Venmo, Cash App, Patreon, and Bandcamp. Perhaps in future we will get to see M-Pesa for a market like Kenya. For now, the best option for this market is PayPal. This is because Paypal allows you to withdraw directly to your M-Pesa account.
Once a user sets up the payment mode, a “Tip Jar” button will appear next to the Follow Button on their Profile. If interested in sending them money, you will hit that button, and then get redirected to whichever payment option they’ve set. Twitter takes no cut from this.
Users on Android will also be able to send money to hosts when attending a Space.
In future we may see Twitter bring the button directly under tweets so that one can easily tip someone for a really good tweet. This is unlike now when you have to visit the persons profile and then be redirected to whichever payment platform they’ve chosen.
