Following an unsuccessful first attempt at paid account verification, Twitter will start rolling out its revamped Blue subscription on December 12th, the company announced on Saturday. Twitter originally launched Blue verification for iOS devices in early November for $8 per month, but the company paused the rollout after the platform was overrun by verified trolls. On Saturday, the company also confirmed the service will cost $11 per month when users subscribe directly through its iOS. On the web, where Apple’s 30 percent commission on in-app purchases doesn’t apply, the subscription will cost $8 per month, as previously announced.
Additionally, the company says it has implemented new measures to prevent a repeat of what happened last month. To start, users who want to display a blue checkmark on their profile will need to register with a phone number after subscribing to the service. Twitter adds subscribers can change their handle, display name and profile photo after obtaining verified status, but the company will temporarily take away their blue checkmark while it reviews their account again. “We’ve added a review step before applying a blue checkmark to an account as one of our new steps to combat impersonation (which is against the Twitter Rules,” said Twitter product manager Esther Crawford in a separate thread.
As before, Twitter says Blue subscribers will get access to a handful of other features later, including the ability to post longer videos and see fewer ads. In the meantime, other Twitter Blue perks include the ability to edit tweets and upload 1080p videos.
Next week will also see Twitter begin rolling out the new gold and grey checkmarks Elon Musk announced on November 25th, starting with the former for businesses. Later in the week, the company plans to begin rolling out the latter to government and “multilateral” accounts. The designators will replace the “official” label the company briefly experimented with after launching paid account verification.
All products recommended by Engadget are selected by our editorial team, independent of our parent company. Some of our stories include affiliate links. If you buy something through one of these links, we may earn an affiliate commission. All prices are correct at the time of publishing.
