After glitches and delays, Twitter re-launched its premium subscription service ‘Twitter Blue’ for web app and iOS in India, the US and many other countries on Monday. The service comes with a gold checkmark for business entities.
‘Twitter Blue’ will be available for Android users soon, the company said in a blog.
An ambitious project of chief executive officer (CEO) Elon Musk, ‘Twitter Blue’ was rolled back on November 11 days after its introduction as criticism grew over fake accounts getting verification marks.
In addition to this, Twitter has introduced gold checkmarks replacing the ‘official’ or business accounts label which appears on the ‘Profile’ of the candidate’s Twitter account. The gold checkmark designates the account as belonging to an official business on the platform. This allows businesses to easily show users that they are legitimate.
According to the Twitter blog, a grey checkmark for government and multilateral accounts will also soon be introduced.
Subscribing for blue ticks on the web will cost $8/month and $11/month for iOS. The blue check mark will indicate that the account has met the eligibility criteria i.e. the account was either previously verified under the “legacy verification criteria” (active, notable, and authentic) or is now active and authentic (need not be notable).
Twitter Blue subscribers get access to subscriber-only features such as Edit Tweet, 1080p video uploads and reader mode. Profiles of ‘Twitter Blue’ subscribers cannot be impersonated. However, the subscriber accounts can be suspended if it is found to be breaking rules like their tweets showing signs of being misleading or deceptive and the account having signs of engaging in platform manipulation and spam.
Once subscription is taken in any channel, web, android or iOS will have Twitter Blue access on all of these. Existing Twitter Blue subscribers can upgrade, cancel, or auto-renew their subscription at the new price that varies by region.
Subscribing to Twitter Blue has been activated in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom. “We plan to roll out Blue to more countries soon,” Twitter has said.