A month after suspending its new paid verification service, Twitter is ready to relaunch Blue on Monday. Elon Musk said the service would not relaunch until there was a high chance of stopping impersonation. Twitter has introduced new requirements to the revamped Blue, which comes with a higher price on iOS.
In a thread, Twitter revealed Blue will launch for $8 monthly on the web on Monday, but it will now cost $11 monthly on iOS. A previous report from Platformer and The Verge says Twitter is raising the price on iOS to make up for Apple’s 30 percent cut on its App Store purchases. As indicated before by Musk, Twitter will be replacing the “official” badge with a gold checkmark for businesses, while government and multilateral accounts will get a grey checkmark.
A verified phone number is now required to get a blue checkmark once Twitter approves an account. Other Twitter Blue features include the edit tweet button, 1080p video uploads, reader mode, and 50% ad visibility when using Twitter. Blue subscribers can also change their handle, display name, or profile photo. However, they will lose the blue checkmark temporarily until their account is “reviewed again,” according to Twitter.
According to Esther Crawford, product manager at Twitter, the additional step to adding a verified phone number is Twitter’s way of combating impersonation, which is against the company’s policy.
Musk previously indicated that Twitter will now manually authenticate accounts to combat impersonation, which he describes as a “painful, but necessary” process. New accounts on Twitter still must wait 90 days to subscribe to Blue.


