Twitter Blue launches again today with some of the changes Elon Musk promised after completing the purchase of the company, and after the platform had to temporarily withdraw the function due to the disaster of the new verification system. Now, the subscription service of the social network has a new price on iOS and considerably improves the process to get the much-coveted blue badge, among other novelties that we will review below.
The main novelty of Twitter Blue is, without a doubt, the possibility of being able to obtain verification next to the username as long as, yes, the person pays the monthly fee for the service. It is, in fact, an option that was already available when Elon Musk updated the Blue functions after his arrival at the company. Twitter, however, had to withdraw it due to the increase in accounts that took advantage of verification to impersonate celebrities or even the tycoon himself.
Now, and to prevent that from happening again, the social network will manually check verification requests made through Twitter Blue. Although there are no concrete details yet, it is likely that the platform will request information from the user to verify their identity. Such as, for example, a photograph of your passport or other document that confirms your identity.
Verified accounts will be able to change their username
Twitter has also confirmed that those verified accounts that wish, may change their name, username or profile picture. These, however, will temporarily lose their badge until the platform reviews their account manually again.
Twitter will also release two new icons for differences verified accounts that correspond to people and celebrities, brands or companies, and those governmental. Therefore, they will eliminate the gray insignia with the word “Official” that can be read in some users and will distinguish the accounts as follows.
- Users and celebrities: badge in blue color.
- Brands or companies: badge in gold color.
- Government Users or Accounts: badge in gray.
Subscribing to Twitter Blue will be more expensive on iOS
As part of Elon Musk’s intention to circumvent the App Store commission system, subscription to Twitter Blue will be more expensive and iOS than through the web, as confirmed by the company itself. On those Apple devices, it will cost $11 a month.. Instead, if the user subscribes through the web version, they will only pay 8 dollars per month. That is, you can save 36 euros a year.
The objective, we reiterate, is none other than to urge users to subscribe through the web so Twitter can get 100% of the revenue. If someone decides to subscribe through the App Store payment system, the social network will also receive a similar amount. And it is that 30% of those 11 dollars a month —just over 3 euros— will go to Apple; and the almost 8 remaining euros, to Twitter.
Twitter Blue, on the other hand, has other advantages in addition to the possibility of verifying an account. Users with a subscription can also edit tweets, watch videos at 1080p and activate a “reading mode” to visualize threads in a much more intuitive way. Elon Musk also has confirmed More features will be added soon.