GETTR CEO discusses rollout of new features, details vision for platform's future

GETTR CEO Jason Miller on Friday outlined a string of new and upcoming features on the social media app and discussed the future of alternative platforms to existing Big Tech products.

Speaking to Just the News, Miller began by touting the app's new edit feature, highlighting its debut ahead of Twitter's own much anticipated update. GETTR announced the debut of its post editing feature on Thursday.

"[W]e were actually able to beat Twitter to the punch on this," he said. "And what we mean is that since we've only been around since July of 2021, but Twitter has been around for 15 years, we now have available to all GETTR users. It doesn't matter what your verification status is. There's no subscription dynamics that says some people get to use the Edit feature and some people don't."

Twitter launched in 2006 and began testing its own edit feature in recent weeks. The company plans to first release it to Twitter Blue subscribers in New Zealand.

"And it doesn't matter geographically where you are, everybody is allowed to use the Edit feature now," Miller continued. "So that's one of the places where not only have we beaten Twitter to this, we've made it much more inclusive and available to the entire global GETTR community, which is approaching six and a half million users."

"But in addition to that, we have a couple other features that we think set us apart," he went on. "Number one, you can make up to five edits within an hour. Twitter only allows for a half hour, but we allow up to five edits in case you accidentally make a mistake in your follow up and want to amend it." Miller further noted that every edited post includes an edit history users can view for context.

Miller asserted that edit feature's rollout was the result of the company listening to its users, saying GETTR users began to express interest in post editing over time. "It wasn't something that when we initially launched we heard a lot about, but then as we started moving into say, later summer and early fall last year we started hearing it a lot more," he noted.

Video, he said, will play a critical role in the future of both the app and social media as a whole.

"The short video formats, the clips... up to a minute... that's really what's the dominant force with the younger users," Miller detailed. "But also, as we talked about, for users of all backgrounds, live-streaming [is] where we truly make GETTR the content destination where if you're looking for great content, you want that entertainment, maybe it's political, maybe it's in sports... Video is king right now."

He did note that, while young users would play a significant role in the platform's growth, people of all demographics would find appeal in the app's commitment to free speech. "Every time TikTok or Instagram kick someone off of their platform[s], that's great for business," Miller said.

The tech executive also spoke to the growth of other free-speech-based social media platforms such as Parler and Truth Social, suggesting that the presence of multiple avenues of public speech would help protect individual voices and encourage innovation among those groups.

"More free speech is better," he replied. Miller then pointed to Big Tech's suppression of the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election and asserted that the myriad of new platforms would help to prevent another comparable occurrence.

Though the company was, in part, founded to meet demand for a censorship-free digital environment, Miller went on to detail his efforts to steer the nascent platform beyond the American political sphere. He first mentioned plans to offer monetization of user content before elaborating on efforts to diversify GETTR's content overall.

"But we also have other community building features that were developed, that are close to being launched, one of which you can find other GETTR users in your area to interact with," he explained. "Also some things with communities and groups as we look to continue building out non-political conversations."

"I just got back from Brazil, at a sit down with one of the professional football clubs in Brazil about a potential partnership for us working with them... We'll have our first GETTR Comedy Night coming up this fall," Miller went on. "We're in conversations with DJs, about getting a music night where we do that once or twice a month... So, we're building out all these different communities to go well above and beyond anything in the political conversation."

GETTR further aims to expand its global reach. Miller said the United States is currently home to 51% of its user base, but that the app was gaining traction around the world, especially in Brazil, the United Kingdom, Europe, Australia, and Japan. He then told Just the News that the company had completed its incorporation paperwork in Japan which will allow the company to expand its reach in that country.

"I've said this needs to be a global platform," Miller concluded. "This can't just be here's the latest social media app from the Americans. We need to have global buy in if we want to scale."