Twitter Blue Relaunched –
After being pulled and delayed in November by the company’s new owner Elon Musk, Twitter relaunched its updated Twitter Blue subscription service on Monday.
When purchased through Apple’s App Store, the service costs $11 per month for iOS users and $8 per month for web users. Musk’s recent complaints about Apple’s 30% cut of all digital sales made through apps are reflected in the $3 iOS price difference.
Some users might not have the option to subscribe just yet, as it appears to be rolling out right now.
Once their accounts have been reviewed and approved, subscribers with verified phone numbers will see a blue checkmark, according to a tweet from Twitter on Saturday. Additionally, Blue users will have early access to new features and the ability to edit tweets. According to the company, Blue subscribers will “soon” see fewer advertisements, be able to post longer videos and show up first in replies and mentions.
Businesses will be given a gold checkmark as part of the relaunch, and governments will be given a grey checkmark to help stop impersonation. Users can change their username, display name, or profile picture at any time, but doing so will result in them losing their blue check until their account is reviewed once more, according to Twitter.
Musk announced the addition of new features in a tweet on Saturday.
In November, Twitter Blue was briefly made available, but it was pulled after users used the new paid feature to impersonate brands and celebrities. For instance, a user pretending to be the well-known pharmaceutical company Eli Lily tweeted, “We are excited to announce Insulin is free now.”
Following the false message’s publication, the value of Eli Lilly’s stock plummeted, as did that of other pharmaceutical firms like AbbVie, which was also the target of a Twitter impersonation.
Despite Musk’s claims that the service would relaunch on November 29, it didn’t launch until Monday.
According to the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, who paid $44 billion to acquire Twitter in October, the new verification system will be “the great leveler” and give “power to the people.” He has been an outspoken critic of Twitter’s previous system, which granted verification to notable users in order to establish their legitimacy, including politicians, businesspeople, members of the press, and organizations. Similar verification processes are used by Facebook and Instagram, two additional social networks owned by Meta.
Under the new Twitter Blue service, users who were verified in accordance with Twitter’s previous policy are labeled as legacy verified accounts that “may not be notable.” All legacy blue checks will be eliminated in a few months, according to Musk’s tweet from Monday.
