Substack Introduces a Chat Feature to Their Mobile App

Substack has introduced a chat feature to their mobile app, positioning themselves as a direct competitor to Twitter. This comes after Twitter has gone through some shakeups with the firing of top executives by Elon Musk. Substack says that they have seen an increase in the quality of writing and discussion in their comments section and that this is what led them to create the chat feature to allow authors to communicate directly with their audiences. Twitter is allegedly experiencing a lot of internal conflict as employees are preparing for mass layoffs. The company is designed so that it is more like a chat app rather than a timeline where people have to scroll to read. The company seeks to allow for more natural conversations while also giving the author control over the topic and tone. Some see this as part of a long-standing trend of people fleeing social media sites over censorship concerns Twitter users are not sure about the site's content moderation, especially after the 500% increase in tweets using racial slurs following Musk’s first weekend as owner. Mastodon, a decentralized Twitter competitor, saw more than 230,000 new users following the Musk acquisition. Some see this as part of a long-standing trend of people fleeing social media sites over censorship concerns.

(source: https://www.searchenginejournal.com/substack-chat/470157/)