Twitter starts testing Tip Jar for some users – but what is it?

Twitter
(Image credit: Mehaniq / Shutterstock)

Twitter has announced a way for their users to be paid directly through their profile, using vendors such as PayPal and Cashapp.

Creators and Influencers have a big following on social media, which means that they usually have sites to give their fans exclusive access to content, whether that’s podcasts or merchandise, behind a paywall.

Twitter has taken notice of this, and is now introducing a button to a small subset of users on both iOS and Android devices to directly receive a ‘tip’ for their efforts.

What is Tip Jar?

Rolling out to a small group of users to test for now, a tip jar icon will appear in their profile next to the ‘follow’ button, which will enable them to link up the following services with the feature, depending on whether it’s available in their region:

  • Bandcamp
  • Cash App
  • Patreon
  • PayPal
  • Venmo

It’s important to note that when sending money by PayPal, your email address may be shown when sending money, depending on your settings.

Another user will be able to press this icon and send money to them directly with Twitter taking no cut, for now at least.

 Can I have it?

Similar to the ‘Twitter Spaces’ feature, Tip Jar is in testing for now, but it has stated that it will be accessible to more users soon.

This is one of a long list of features that Twitter has been rolling out recently. From the higher-quality uploads of photos, to improvements in YouTube videos in tweets that’s also coming soon.

It took roughly a month before Spaces was rolled out to users with more than 600 followers, and the same may apply here in the coming weeks.

Via Twitter Blog

Daryl Baxter
Software & Downloads Writer

Daryl had been freelancing for 3 years before joining TechRadar, now reporting on everything software-related. In his spare time, he's written a book, 'The Making of Tomb Raider'. His second book, '50 Years of Boss Fights', came out in 2024, with a third book coming in 2025. He also has a newsletter called 'Springboard'. He's usually found playing games old and new on his Steam Deck, Nintendo Switch, and MacBook Pro. If you have a story about an updated app, one that's about to launch, or just anything Software-related, drop him a line.