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Twitter Relaunches Blue & Will Charge Apple Users More

By  |  December 12, 2022

Twitter will resurrect its Twitter Blue subscription service this week, with Apple users paying more.

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    The social media platform said on its own Twitter account that the service will resume Monday (Dec. 12) for $8 per month on the web — or $11 per month on Apple’s iOS — to “get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark.”

    Twitter also thanked users for their patience. The service had initially been set to relaunch the week before Thanksgiving, and then on Nov. 29.

    The company suspended Twitter Blue on Nov. 11 to stamp out a wave of fraudulent accounts.

    As PYMNTS has reported, Twitter’s blue checkmark was once reserved for well-known people, but once CEO Elon Musk took ownership of the company, it became open to anyone who paid for subscription services.

    Read more: Republicans Attack Apple For Maybe Removing Twitter From App Store

    Musk said last month the company will launch a new checkmark system, with color categories that include companies (gold), blue (celebrities and other individuals), and gray (governments).

    It was not immediately clear why Twitter had chosen two different tiers for web and iOS users. Both Twitter and Apple have not responded to PYMNTS’ request for comment.

    However, the announcement comes on the heels of a conflict between Musk and Apple, which began when he announced the iPhone maker had “mostly” pulled its advertising from the platform and threatened to remove Twitter from the App Store.

    Days later, however, things had apparently cooled off, as Musk visited with Apple CEO Tim Cook at Apple headquarters.

    “Good conversation,” Musk wrote. “Among other things, we resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store. Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”

    Musk has spoken of Twitter as his launching pad for X, “the everything app.” As PYMNTS has written, turning Twitter into the X super app “may be the only realistic way Musk, and his investor cohort, can manage to not lose their shirts on the $44 billion purchase of the platform, but clearly lots more works needs to be done.”