Elon Musk’s $8 Twitter Blue subscription is coming back with phone number verification and a higher price on iOS

Elon Musk’s $8 Twitter Blue subscription is coming back with phone number verification and a higher price on iOS

Illustration by Alex Castro / The Verge

Twitter’s relaunching its Blue subscription on Monday, one month after abandoning a chaotic first attempt that spurred hoax accounts and general mayhem.

As reported previously, the subscription will cost $8 per month to purchase on the web or $11 per month via the iOS App Store to make up for the up to 30 percent commission Apple takes off of in-app purchases. This time, anyone paying for Blue who wants to display a “verified” checkmark on their profile will need to register a phone number first, and changing your “handle, display name or profile photo” will remove the label until your account is reviewed again.

we’re relaunching @TwitterBlue on Monday – subscribe on web for $8/month or on iOS for $11/month to get access to subscriber-only features, including the blue checkmark pic.twitter.com/DvvsLoSO50

— Twitter (@Twitter) December 10, 2022

In a thread on Twitter, the company says subscribers will get access to the blue profile checkmark along with a number of features, including the ability to edit tweets, upload 1080p videos, and access reader mode. The company lists fewer ads and prioritization in search and replies as “coming soon.”

Twitter also says it’s replacing the “official” label it toyed with during the last Blue push with a gold checkmark for businesses before adding a gray checkmark for “government and multilateral accounts” later this week.

Esther Crawford, the product manager at Twitter, says the company’s adding the phone verification requirement before users are granted a blue checkmark to combat impersonation.

Elon Musk launched his version of Twitter Blue last month, but pulled the feature after two days when a wave of fake verified accounts flooded the platform. The rushed rollout caused concern among advertisers and government officials, with Senator Ed Markey (D-MA) telling Musk to fix his companies “or Congress will” after the billionaire brushed off his concerns about impersonations on the platform.

Last month, The Verge’s Alex Heath reported that Musk told Twitter employees he wouldn’t relaunch Blue until the company’s “confident about significant impersonations not happening.” In addition to requiring Blue subscribers to provide a verified phone number, Musk previously said accounts will “be manually authenticated” before the blue checkmark appears on their profiles.