Substack today announced it is bringing the “Chat” feature it launched on mobile last November to the web. Chat allows writers to communicate directly with their loyal readers on Substack. When Substack first announced chat, the company hoped to capitalize on the upheaval of his Twitter following Elon Musk’s takeover.
The company also announced that it is expanding control over who can start new conversations on Substack. Publishers can now choose to grant permission to start chatting to all subscribers, only paid subscribers, or only founding members.
“These new features will allow more people to participate in chats from any device and help subscribers take a more active role in community conversations,” the company said in a blog post. says. “This is also a boon for those of us who prefer to type on a keyboard rather than a touchscreen. Chat transforms Substack from broadcast media to a place to hang out with people who share your intellectual interests.”
Substack points out that writers who host two or more chats on Substack earn 19% more annual revenue than writers who don’t.
Substack already has many threaded discussions between writers and readers using Chat. Writers are building their own networks on Twitter, as well as Discord, Slack, and Telegram. I also participate in other online communities. .
Today’s announcement comes a few weeks after Substack introduced Private Substacks. Private Substacks are publications that can be hosted independently or readers can request a subscription to read your posts. Given that Twitter has been offering the ability to keep accounts private for years, the launch marks the company’s further nudge into Twitter territory by offering Private Substacks. indicates that your choice.
