Substack is making moves to enhance its Notes feature, bringing it closer to the functionalities of the popular social network X. In an announcement on Tuesday, the company unveiled the ability for users to now post videos directly on Notes through the Substack app and on the web. In addition, users can also embed Notes on external webpages, expanding the reach of their content.
These new features come one year after Notes was first introduced in April 2023, a time when many users were flocking to alternative platforms in search of a new online home following Elon Musk’s takeover of X in late 2022. Similar to X, Notes allows users to share posts, quotes, comments, images, links, and ideas in a tweet-like format, all displayed in a dedicated feed.
As of today, users can easily post videos on Notes by recording one, selecting from their camera roll, or uploading from their desktop. With the rise of video content on the platform, Substack aims to provide writers and creators with the opportunity to showcase their work on Notes. This follows the trend of other popular apps such as X and Meta’s Threads, which also allow users to post videos.
Additionally, Substack has introduced the ability to embed Notes on external pages, which will further enhance the reach of writers’ content beyond the Substack platform. As illustrated by Substack, this could involve embedding a writer’s Note in a news article, a common occurrence on X. Users can obtain the embed code for a Note by clicking on the three-dot menu in the top right corner and selecting the “embed note” option.
According to Substack’s recent announcement, Notes has generated over 3,000 paid subscriptions and 230,000 free subscriptions for writers and creators in the past 30 days, showcasing its effectiveness in attracting and retaining users. In the company’s blog post, it explains that Notes is particularly valuable for users without large existing audiences.
Substack was quick to identify the chaos at X and took advantage of the opportunity. In October 2022, the company even published a post directly targeting X, warning “Twitter is changing, and it’s tough to predict what might be next.” This prompted creators of all types to migrate their follower base to Substack. Following this, Substack further expanded its ambitions with the introduction of a Chat feature, and later, Notes.
While Substack continues to improve and expand its Twitter-like product, X is experiencing an increase in disorder, with the company recently announcing plans to charge new users a small fee before allowing them to post on the platform in an attempt to combat its bot issues.
