Illustration: The Verge
Apple employees will soon stop providing assistance to customers via X — formerly Twitter — as well as YouTube and the Apple Support Community online forum, MacRumors reports, citing anonymous sources.
Apple reportedly plans on getting rid of its social media support advisor roles, including the paid community specialist role for the Apple Support Community, later this year. Over 150 employees will be affected, though MacRumors reports that Apple will offer these workers an opportunity to switch to a phone-based support role.
The changes are supposed to begin going into effect on October 1st. Starting then, users on X will receive automated messages directing them elsewhere for help. Apple will also stop offering assistance to customers in the comments section of YouTube videos on the Apple Support channel.
It’s not clear why Apple would eliminate these roles. It’s possible the tech giant is just trying to cut costs, particularly after X increased API prices in March, thus potentially raising the cost of social media management tools. It could also be that these platforms may not be the most efficient way of offering technical assistance to customers.
In either case, the company’s not the only one in tech reducing how much support it offers via social media. Last year, Sony also stopped offering one-to-one PlayStation customer support via the service then-called Twitter, as did Netflix, which had been operating support on the platform for over a decade. It’s not clear why Sony made the move, but Netflix said it was trying to steer customers toward using company-owned platforms more. Perhaps Apple’s trying to pull off something similar.
We’ve reached out to Apple for comment.
