Twitter makes in-app tipping official with ‘Tip Jar’

Twitter just introduced its long-rumored in-app tipping feature. The company is enabling some users to add a “tip jar” to their profile so other users can pay them without leaving the app. Twitter says for now it’s making the feature available to “a limited group of people around the world who use Twitter in English,” including creators, journalists, nonprofits and other influential users.

Users who have access to Tip Jar are able to connect their account to Bandcamp, Cash App, Patreon, PayPal and Venmo. Those who visit their profile on iOS will then be able to send them cash (Android users will only have access to tipping via Spaces for now). Twitter added that it doesn’t take a cut from users’ tips.

An early version of the feature was previously spotted back in March, and Twitter VP of Product Ilya Brown previously told Engadget the company was thinking about how to integrate tipping into its service, since many users already drop their Venmo or Cash App handles.

Separately, Twitter is working on several other features designed to help creators make money off its platform. The company said earlier this week it would allow some people to sell tickets to Spaces, the company’s audio-only chatroom feature. Twitter is also working on “super follows,” a feature that would allow users to monetize their tweets and provide exclusive content, and a subscription service that could eliminate publications’ paywalls on the platform.

Update: Twitter product lead Kayvon Beykpour said the company would update the feature to add warnings notifying users that tipping via PayPal also shares the address associated with the account, after some users noticed that PayPal shares the information as part of its payments. 

However, a spokesperson for PayPal said that addresses are only shared if payments are sent under the “goods and services” category, and that selecting “friends and family” keeps users’ addresses hidden. “This is the standard functionality of the PayPal app and we will work with Twitter closely to ensure user awareness,” the spokesperson said.