Twitter Blue Apple Users To Pay Premium Price

Elon Musk’s Twitter has on Monday relaunched its revamped paid-for verification feature Twitter Blue – but Apple users will pay more.

The micro-blogging platform confirmed the development in a tweet, with a monthly cost of $8 per month.

However Apple iOS users will have to pay $11 per month. There was no reason given for this premium price, but Musk recently  publicly called out Apple over its App Store commission charges.

Botched launch

Prior to Musk’s takeover, the blue tick was used as verification tool for high-profile accounts.

The blue tick is a verified badge to let people know a particular account is authentic. It was given out by Twitter for free – but only Twitter itself decided who got one.

Musk however argued that this was unfair and suggested a monthly fee, amid crashing advertising revenues, as a way for Twitter to make money – a stance that saw him clash with noted author Stephen King.

Musk had first suggested a monthly fee of $20 per month, before settling on $8 per month.

But the initial launch was quickly pulled after a wave of fake accounts that took advantage of the blue checkmark and impersonated politicians, businesspeople and companies.

Pharmaceutical giant Eli Lilly for example was forced to apologise after a fake account with a blue check impersonating the company said the company would make insulin available for free – which was not the case.

This further scared off advertisers, over fear their brand names could be hijacked by impersonators.

Last week Elon Musk said that Apple and Amazon had ‘fully resumed’ advertising on Twitter.

Those who had a blue tick under the previous regime currently still have them, but now some of these users also have a message which appears if the tick is pressed saying the account is a “legacy verified account” and “may or may not be notable”.

However, those check marks will now eventually be replaced with either gold (for businesses) or grey (for others such as authorities) badges, according to Twitter’s own account.

Relaunched service

On Monday Twitter confirmed that it has relaunched the blue tick service. Under the new system, subscribers who change their names or display photos will lose their blue tick until the account has been reviewed by Twitter.

So what does Twitter offer for $8 per month, or $11 per month for Apple users?

Twitter Blue users with a verified phone number and Twitter verification, will get:

• Prioritised tweets;
• half the adverts – coming soon;
• ability to post longer videos;
• Early access to other features such as edit button.