After it was launched and promptly halted last month, Twitter Blue subscription is now back and this time you’ll need a verified phone number.
Elon Musk’s $8 per month Twitter Blue subscription with verification is officially available on iOS and web.
Twitter Blue was originally launched on November 9th but was put on hold around a day later after a bunch of people used it to convincingly impersonate high-profile brands and accounts, despite Twitters rules against doing so.
This time around, the platform is relying on a lightly described review process, as well as the phone number verification requirement, to limit any “verified” hoaxing.
Twitter Blue Subscription Plans & Features
In a thread on Twitter, Twitter notes that Blue will cost $11 per month if you sign up on iOS.
If you paid for the old $4.99 / $2.99 Blue package, then you’ll need to subscribe again to keep its benefits.
Anyone who signed up on Apple at the old $7.99 per month price will be automatically renewed at $11 per month unless they cancel.
Some of the features that come with the subscription include:
- Bookmark folders: This feature lets subscribers group and organize Bookmarked Tweets into folders for faster discovery later.
- Custom app icons: With Custom App icons, users can change how their Twitter App icon displays on their phone.
- Themes: Twitter Blue Themes let you choose from colorful options for your app theme.
- Custom navigation: This feature lets you choose what appears in your navigation bar, so you get quick access to the content and Twitter destinations you care about most.
- Top articles: Top Articles is a shortcut to the most-shared articles in your network.
- Reader: Lets you turn long threads into a more beautiful reading experience.
- Ability to Undo a Tweet: This feature lets you retract a Tweet after you send it before it’s visible to others on Twitter. It’s not an edit* button, but a chance to preview and revise your Tweet before it’s posted for the world to see.
Countries Twitter Blue Is Currently Available
Subscribing to Twitter Blue is now available in the following countries.
- United States
- Canada
- Australia
- New Zealand
- United Kingdom
The platform does note that they are planning to role out the feature to more countries soon.
Security Features Put In Place
In order to detect and prevent impersonation, Twitter has put a couple of measures in place.
According to the platforms blog, users who who change their profile information, including display name, profile photo, and username (@handle), will temporarily lose their blue checkmark until those changes are reviewed by Twitter.
The following accounts will also not be able to subscribe to Twitter Blue at this time.
- Accounts created within the last 90 days.
- Inactive accounts
- Acounts without a verified phone number.
- Accounts with recent changes to their information.
Twitter Gold Checkmarks
In addition to the above changes, Twitter will be replacing the “Official” label with a gold checkmark on some business accounts on Twitter.
The Official profile label was previously applied to government accounts, certain political organizations, major brands, media outlets and publishers, and some other public figures.
