Substack releases Twitter-like Notes feature to all users

Newsletter platform Substack has released its Notes feature to all users. This Twitter-like feature lets users share short messages with each other. The company announced the feature last week and said it will be available ‘soon’.

Substack Notes has been available to everyone since Tuesday, the company writes in a blog post. This gives users access to a new platform where they can ‘publish and share short posts with other writers and readers’. The function is reminiscent of Twitter in terms of structure and concept. In addition to text, users can also share URLs, images, and snippets from Substack newsletters. However, it is not possible to share videos on the platform.

There is no character limit when publishing Notes messages. Users can add up to six images and gifs to a note. Posts published via Notes do not end up in the inbox of subscribers to a Substack newsletter, but can only be viewed on Substack itself; the feature will be available in a separate tab in the Substack app and website. Two feeds will be available: ‘home’ and ‘subscribed’. The former contains posts from writers that users have subscribed to, in addition to ‘recommended’ posts. ‘Subscribed’ only shows messages from newsletter writers to which the user is subscribed.

Substack says it has been testing its Notes feature with a limited number of users in recent weeks. The company expects that there will be “bumps, bugs and imperfections” in the feature and that the feature will “develop quickly in response to feedback.” Notes should make it easier for writers to find new subscribers for their newsletter.

The company announced Notes last week. The company then said that the feature would be available soon. Shortly afterwards, interactions with Substack messages were blocked on Twitter. Twitter users could not reply to, retweet, like or bookmark such tweets. That blockade has now been lifted. Twitter owner Elon Musk claimed last week that Substack was “trying to download a large portion of the Twitter database” for the Notes feature, but shared no further evidence of this. Substack denies Musk’s report.