Twitter Launches $8 Monthly Subscription With Verification Seal

Twitter Inc on Saturday launched a subscription service for its social media platform for $8 a month that includes the blue badge of identity verification, offering an updated version on Apple’s App Store.

In an update for Apple iOS devices, Twitter said those who “subscribe now” can receive the much-desired blue check badge next to their usernames, “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.” .

A blue checkmark next to a person’s username means that Twitter has confirmed that the account belongs to the person or company claiming it.

According to the iOS notification, other benefits of the update include “half the ads”, the ability to post longer videos on Twitter, and priority ranking for quality content.

Twitter’s new owner Elon Musk flagged the new service earlier this week in his effort to monetize the social media network and make it less reliant on ads. Currently, Twitter is free for most users.

Twitter’s update said the new service with verification will be available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK.

“Once we confirm it is working well in the initial set of countries and we finish the translation work, it will roll out worldwide,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.

However, according to a tweet by Twitter’s early-stage product executive Esther Crawford on Saturday, the new Twitter Blue service is available but not yet launched.

“The new Blue is not yet available – planning for our release continues, but some people may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time,” she said in a post.

Earlier this week, Crawford went viral after she retweeted a photo of herself sleeping on the office floor at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters following the Musk takeover.

“When your team is struggling all the time to meet deadlines, sometimes you #SleepWhereYouWork.”

(Reporting by Rhea Binoy in Bangalore; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)