Lately Twitter has been making headlines for all the wrong reasons, though some might argue that there’s no such thing as bad publicity.

Whether you’re hoping for Twitter to fly or fail, there are recent updates on the platform that may prove relevant to you, from new features on the app for advertisers to information about archiving your Twitter account.

New Color-Coded Verification Check Marks

New Twitter owner Elon Musk made waves when he declared that Twitter users wishing to keep their blue check marks—a symbol representing user verification—would have to pay a monthly fee.

During its short time live, the new $8-a-month program saw a series of impersonations on the app causing stock prices to dip, controversy, and misreporting. Basically, people were buying the covered blue ticks because they could and changing their profiles to look like popular companies or celebrities—and it looked legit.

In response to the pandemonium, details on a new, updated plan have been announced (and yes, it still costs $8).

For all humans, it’s the traditional blue check for a monthly fee—celebrity or not. Meaning, anyone can buy one, which sort of eliminates the coveted status of it all, no?

For companies, it’ll be a gold check, and for government, the check will be gray. Both of these categories will require manual confirmation on Twitter’s end, and it’s forced to do so with 65% less of its staff, after layoffs and resignations.

For now, expect your Twitter feed to be a little more colorful, but how well it’ll work, we’ll just have to wait and see.

Twitter Launches Ad Updates

For those brands still advertising on Twitter, the platform launched some new ad-targeting options, intended to improve the way advertisers reach customers most likely to make purchases.

An update on the platform’s conversion tracking objective makes it easier for advertisers not only to reach people who might click on the ad, but also to focus on the ones likely to move beyond a single click and add something to their cart, make a purchase, subscribe to a newsletter, and register contact information.

Options to add conversion tracking—which uses pixel tracking to measure the type of users to target—are available within the Campaign Objectives screen for advertisers.

In addition, Twitter introduced an update to its Dynamic Product Ads, which allow advertisers to serve ads to targeted customers with relevant products they have engaged with (added to cart, viewed online, etc.). While this type of ad has been around since 2016, the update seeks a more privacy-focused approach, enlisting its Twitter pixel for website visitor tracking.

These updates were reportedly in the works before the platform lost more than half of its staff.

TechCrunch Shares Data Backup Tools for Twitter Quitters

Whether users are jumping ship or are just plain concerned about the future of Twitter, those who regularly use the platform might find it prudent to back up their data if it’s important to them to archive it.

Twitter offers a tool for archiving account data, which may take a few days depending on the size and activity of a given user’s account. Business Insider shares a good tutorial here.

Once users receive notification that their archive is ready for download, they’ll have access to a zip file containing a number of different files and folders, including a personalized web page of potentially useful data like original tweets, direct messages, likes, and more; a folder containing every photo and video ever uploaded or retweeted; and a document detailing all the files in the folder.

For some, this can be a lot to sort through, and the list from TechCrunch details a number of open source tools that can help utilize these archives—once downloaded directly from Twitter—in more efficient ways. The website does warn, however, that many of its recommendations would prove easier to use by those with knowledge of Python and other programming languages.

View the list here, but regardless of one’s computer prowess, it seems wise to submit a request to Twitter for those archives sooner than later.

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