Twitter Blue Launches Monday: Here’s What’s Included

Twitter announced Monday 12/12/2012 that Twitter Blue, the brand new Twitter Blue, will be available. While the service is $8/month for web users, it will go up to $11/month if signed up via the iOS application. It will cost $11/month, to account for the 30% Apple cuts for first-year in-app subscriptions.

A review will take place to confirm that a subscriber is registered with a phone number and what appears to be an automated double-check by a person. Esther Crawford is the Twitter product manager says “we’ve added a review step before applying a blue checkmark to an account as one of our new steps to combat impersonation (which is against the Twitter Rules).”

After verification, subscribers will receive a blue checkmark and the ability to edit their tweets. (If this feature is not removed, it will offer only a 30-minute editing window). There will also be 1080p video uploads and a Twitter reader mode that allows for easy reading long threads.

Interestingly, changes to your Twitter account will require re-verification, even if you’re just adding a new account photo:

“Subscribers will be able to change their handle, display name or profile photo, but if they do they’ll temporarily lose the blue checkmark until their account is reviewed again,” the official Twitter account said.

That could put the breaks on people changing their profile photos regularly, or adjusting their display name to indicate that they’re at a conference, or supporting a particular cause.

Twitter will also roll out all the other changes promised just a few weeks back. The relatively new “official” labels will be replaced with a check marks: gold for businesses, a grey checkmark for government accounts (as well as what Twitter calls “multilateral” accounts.)

Some of Elon Musk’s promised juicier features are yet to be realized.

That includes extended reach and visibility of tweets and replies from verified accounts, which Twitter is pitching as “rocketing” to the top of replies, mentions, and searches, as well as seeing fewer ads — 50% as many, Twitter says — and posting longer videos to Twitter. Video are in general not currently being used. limitedThe videos are just over 2 minutes long, though there have been some tricks to allow for longer clips.

Musk tweeted his concerns over slowing ad income on Twitter. Advertisers also expressed concerns that their ads might be appearing alongside brand-safe material. Musk would be less dependent on the revenue of advertisers if he had a mass-market subscription. However, it will take many subscribers to completely replace his ad revenues. Twitter announced recently that advertisers will be able to block the terms with which they don’t want their ads associated.