Twitter Relaunches Blue Tick Service With Higher Price For iPhone Users – On Monday, Twitter will restart its subscription service, granting users verified status for $8 per month or $11 per month on their iPhone. Following a flawed revamp of the service last month, a slew of impostor accounts appeared on the network, as users took advantage of the opportunity to create fake “verified” identities for prominent corporations and public individuals. Twitter said: “We’re relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday – subscribe on web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark.”
It added that users willing to pay $8 on the web or $11 a month via Apple’s app store would get more prominence on the platform than non-payers, promising that subscribers would “rocket to the top of replies, mentions and search.” Twitter said this feature would be coming soon. According to Twitter’s website, the blue tick service is “currently available on iOS only in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK, with plans to expand.” Twitter said giving priority to subscribers would help combat “scams and spam,” referring to one of the bugbears of the platform’s owner, Elon Musk, who attempted to walk away from a deal to buy the business because of his concerns over vexatious automated accounts.
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Twitter stated that users who seek to change their handle, display name, or profile picture will temporarily lose their tick until their account is examined again. Among the additional features available to subscribers is the option to edit tweets. According to a trial launched by the firm in September, soon before Musk purchased Twitter, users would be allowed to amend a tweet up to 30 minutes after it has been published, with a sign indicating that the message has been edited. In addition, the quantity of advertisements will be cut in half, and users will be able to compose longer tweets.
Additionally, the company revealed that it would implement a color-coded verification system, with businesses obtaining a gold tick and government accounts receiving a gray sign. Twitter did not explain why Apple users were paying more than others on the web, although Musk has been openly critical of Twitter’s app store fees, which take up to 30% of sales. Last month, in a series of tweets, he accused Apple of threatening to ban Twitter from its app store for undisclosed reasons and also claimed that the iPhone manufacturer had ceased advertising on the social media platform.
However, during a second conversation with Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, he tweeted that the misunderstanding regarding Twitter’s removal from Apple’s app store had been rectified. Musk has made it quite apparent that he wants Twitter to become less reliant on advertising, which accounted for 90% of its $5.1 billion in income in 2017. The urgency of this need has increased since the CEO of Tesla claimed a “huge reduction in revenue” as advertisers fled from the site due to concerns about content moderation, with the emergence of “verified” impostor accounts increasing these fears.
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