Twitter is introducing Tip Jar, a feature that will let you tip your favourite accounts or let people support your work beyond getting new followers, likes, reshares and replies. Tip Jar will let you receive tips as well.
In the initial stages of the feature, Twitter has allowed a limited group of people around the world who use Twitter in English. The group includes creators, journalists, experts and non-profits that can enable Tip Jar on their profiles to allow people support their work.
Creatives and other users on the platform have been linking their PayPal accounts after their tweets go viral to have people support their work and Tip Jar is an easy way to support the incredible voices that make up the conversations on Twitter.
Twitter says, “We see you – sharing your PayPal link after your Tweet goes viral, adding your Cashtag to your profile so people can support your work, dropping your Venmo handle on your birthday or if you just need some extra help. You drive the conversation on Twitter and we want to make it easier for you to support each other beyond Follows, Retweets, and Likes. Today, we’re introducing Tip Jar – a new way for people to send and receive tips. “
“This is the first step in our work to create new ways for people to receive and show support on Twitter.”
While this might not be available for everyone now, Tip Jar will be an efficient way to make the payments. Users will also be able to toggle the tip Jar feature depending on when they want payments or not.
How to enable Tip Jar on your profile
To enable Tip Jar, Go to your profile and click on the edit profile button, beneath your bio you will see enable Tip Jar button. Click on it to enable as on the image below. Your followers will know if an account’s Tip Jar is enabled if they see a Tip Jar icon next to the Follow button on their profile page.
To make payments, tap the icon, and you’ll see a list of payment services or platforms that the account has enabled. Select your preferred payment service, this will take you off Twitter to the selected app where you can show your support with the amount you choose. The services* you can add today include Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo. Payment services availability and features will vary by region.
Normally new features come with some peculiarity and Tip Jar likely will package some as well. Twitter promises more improvements on the feature in future.
“We’re updating our tipping prompt and Help Center to make it clearer that other apps may share info between people sending/receiving tips, per their terms,” Twitter said.