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.”
While the updated app initially showed a revamped notification shade that displayed tweets from verified users on the first tab by default (to promote the idea that paying for the new subscription is the best way to make sure people actually see your tweets), this has since disappeared. As noted by one of my colleagues at The edge and reverse engineer Jane Manchun Wongthe new layout disappears after closing the app and opening it again.
The app gave a ‘Blue looks good on you, enjoy your verified check’ when users try to sign up with Blue as well, but without the actual opt-in to display a ‘verified’ label on your profile. This message has also disappeared from my colleague’s app after Twitter shutdown and reopening, so it’s unclear if all users will see this appear.
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. Crawford says it’s coming to Europe “soon”.
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.
Update, 4:34 PM ET: Updated to note that the redesigned notifications tab is no longer available.
Update, 5:15 PM ET: Updated to note that not all users will see information about the verification process after updating.
Update, 5:27 PM ET: Updated to note that the new Blue plan is coming to Europe soon.
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