Elon Musk says X's Premium, Plus services to be free for these users

Billionaire Elon Musk on Thursday said that microblogging platform X will issue premium services for free for users with at least 2,500 verified subscribers.

"Going forward, all 𝕏 accounts with over 2500 verified subscriber followers will get Premium features for free and accounts with over 5000 will get Premium+ for free," says Musk.

X Premium is the company's premium subscription service that aims to boost quality conversations on the platform by removing ads and offering additional features to improve the experience. It offers three tiers: Basic, Premium, and Premium+.

In basic, users get essential premium features like editing posts, longer posts and longer video uploads, reply prioritisation, text formatting, bookmark folders, and custom app icons.

However, premium provides all basic features plus a checkmark, reduced ads, access to apply for ads revenue sharing and creator subscriptions, larger reply prioritisation, ID verification, and media studio.

The company's most premium service, Premium+, includes all premium features, with additional benefits like no ads in the "For You" and "Following" timelines, largest reply prioritisation, articles, and access to GrokAI, which is currently limited to Premium+ subscribers only.

The company's premium subscriptions include several features including edit posts, longer posts and longer video uploads. Those using premium and premium+ services also get the benefits of blue checkmarks, ads revenue sharing, and creator subscriptions.

Musk and X CEO Linda Yaccarino have been working on changing Twitter's core identity since her joining in April 2023 as the billionaire at that time had said they'll transform the platform into an “everything app”.

The recent big changes added to X include a double tap to fast forward or backward in the video; auto & video calls, rate limits to fight scams; improved TweetDeck; securing of first money transmitter license in Michigan; launching of new account analytics; job listing features; airplay button for videos; community spotlight module; video downloads; community notes expansion; and sharing of ad revenue with eligible creators globally.

Separately, Tesla CEO Elon Musk's brain-chip company, Neuralink, has demonstrated how its first patient who underwent brain implant surgery recently is doing. Neuralink released a nine-minute video showing its first human patient using the brain implant to control a mouse cursor and he was also seen playing chess with nothing but a moving cursor via a brain chip in his mind.

The first trial of the brain implant was conducted in January 2024. Before that, Neuralink had conducted the trial on a monkey, who was shown controlling an on-screen cursor to play the video game Pong following the successful implant.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) had permitted Neuralink to conduct first-in-human clinical trials for its brain implant in January 2024. During a brain implant surgery, the Neuralink's device is put inside the brain using a surgical robot. Once implanted, it is not visible cosmetically.