Substack targets Twitter with its Substack chat launch

Substack has openly targeted Twitter’s user base over the past few days and has now entered the market as a more direct competitor with the launch of Substack Chat.

Newsletter platform Substack is hoping to capitalize on Twitter’s upheaval as a consequence of Elon Musk’s takeover.

The Substack Chat feature allows Substack writers to communicate directly with their most avid and loyal readers right in the Substack mobile application.

With its Chat feature Substack is not only taking on Twitter, but other online communities where writers have been building out networks of their own, like Discord, Telegram, and Stack, as well.

The firm says the new Chat feature will end the need for its writers to hassle together different software tools and cross-reference subscriber lists.

Chat is not merely a Twitter clone by any means—though there are overlaps with writers' usage of Twitter in the past.

For beginners, the Chat feature will be opt-in, meaning not every newsletter may have chats enabled at this time. Publications will have to first enable the feature on their Setting page or by simply starting a new thread in the Substack app.

Substack says writers, including pop culture writer Hunter Harris, sports journalist Joe Posnanski, and comic writer 3 Worlds / 3 Moons, have launched chats on their newsletter service.