Twitter has relaunched the much-derided Twitter Blue subscription service, which arrives with one major change – a premium price for users who buy through the Apple App Store.
The service, which guarantees users a blue verification tick and several other perks, still costs $8 if you’re an Android user, but it’s £11 on iOS.
The reason for the discrepancy is the 30% cut Apple takes for the sale of in-app purchases via its own digital storefront. Twitter had prefaced this prior to resuming Twitter Blue memberships, which were paused following a slew of (often hilarious) imposters tweeting with blue ticks.
As well as the cherished blue tick, which will be granted as soon as Twitter has reviewed the account to ensure accurate identities, there are several other perks that may attract subscribers. Users will be able to edit and undo their tweets. There’ll be a new reader view with “less noise”, while the Twitter Blue feed will also have fewer adverts.
There’s custom navigation, which lets users select “what appears in your navigation bar, so you get quick access to the content and Twitter destinations you care about most”, Twitter says in the blog post.
The company is also promising access to the most-shared articles from people you follow (and people they follow), exclusive bookmark folders and custom app icons for Blue subscribers.
Twitter has acknowledged there will be some confusion about the blue tick, with there now being two means of acquiring one. It also says gold ticks will be handed out to businesses and grey ticks to governments.
“Now the blue checkmark may mean two different things: either that an account was verified under the previous verification criteria (active and authentic), or that the account has an active subscription to Twitter Blue,” it says in the post.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
