Twitter’s app on iOS has been updated to support Elon Musk’s $7.99 per month Twitter Blue. The latest update of the app about the Apple App Store says you have to pay for Blue to get verified on the platform “just like the celebrities, companies and politicians you already follow.”
However, the new Twitter Blue subscription is not yet available. Esther Crawford, Product Manager at Twitter confirmed it’s not live now but says some users “can see we’re making updates because we’re testing and pushing changes in real time.”
What’s live instantly in the updated app is a revamped notification shade that displays tweets from verified users on the first tab by default. This helps promote the idea that paying for the new subscription is the best way to make sure people actually see your tweets.
The app gives a “Blue looks good on you, enjoy your verified tick” popup when users sign up with Blue, but without the actual opt-in for displaying a “verified” label on your profile, although we have an idea about what that will look like thanks to Jane Manchun Wong. App researcher Nima Owji has also given us a glimpse of the new “official account” labels Twitter could apply to notable users, as well as a “verified account” confirmation on profiles, indicating that an account has been verified ‘because it is subscribed to Twitter Blue’.
It’s still not clear when verification via Twitter Blue will go live (or when it will arrive on Android), but it looks like it will be soon. Musk initially gave the developers working on Blue until Monday, November 7, to complete these changes or she would be fired.
It seems that authentication is the only feature available with the Twitter Blue subscription to get started. Other benefits such as fewer ads, the ability to post longer videos, and priority ranking to “reduce the visibility of scams, spam and bots” are listed as “coming soon”. Twitter Blue is only available in the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the UK for now.
When Musk announced the new Twitter Blue subscription last week, he hinted that it would provide access to articles with a paywall, but this feature isn’t included in the update. He also pulled the ad-free article benefit that came with Twitter Blue’s previous $4.99/month subscription and has reportedly pushed to make Twitter’s “edit” button available to all users, not just subscribers. On Friday, Musk fired about half of Twitter employees in various departments, including product trust and safety, policy, communications, tweet curation, ethical AI and others.
Update, 3:08 PM ET: Updated to add information from a product manager at Twitter.
Update, 3:25 PM ET: Updated to add more information about Twitter’s upcoming “official account” labels and verified account confirmations.
