What you need to know
- Elon Musk announces Twitter Blue will soon cost users $8 per month.
- Twitter Blue's new direction will include the verified check mark along with a few new perks such as gaining priority in replies, mentions, and searches.
- Twitter's new CEO believes this to be a better way of earning a revenue stream for the platform to then turn on its content creators.
Quick on the draw, Elon Musk has revealed the new monthly pricing for Twitter Blue.
According to a tweet by Twitter's new CEO Elon Musk, Twitter Blue will now cost users $8 a month and this includes the verified mark. Musk also informed users in other countries that the price they see will be adjusted to their location.
Twitter’s current lords & peasants system for who has or doesn’t have a blue checkmark is bullshit. Power to the people! Blue for $8/month.November 1, 2022
Elon Musk has also detailed some new perks members of the new Twitter Blue will receive upon paying the subscription. Users will gain priority in replies, mentions, and searches which Musk sees as a way to defeat both spamming and scams on the platform, something he's been very vocal about.
Twitter Blue members under this new plan will gain the ability to post longer videos and audio clips and will also see half as many ads on the social media platform. To offer some better separation from the pack, public figures will gain a "secondary tag" beneath their name.
Elon Musk is also interested in offering a paywall bypass for publishers that are willing to work with Twitter. This is interesting as it follows reports that Twitter Blue members have lost the ability to read ad-free articles through the subscription plan as it evolves moving forward.
Twitter Blue may not have been worth the price when we first tried it out, but these new additions may likely bolster the subscription service, in addition to other features like the edit button. Twitter's new CEO sees this new direction for Twitter Blue as a way to gain a revenue stream that isn't so reliant on ads.
There have been talks about how users would soon face a hefty charge for having a coveted verified checkmark on Twitter. Early indications thought we would see a price near the $20 range per month for users to keep their verified marks. While we are seeing the increase scaled down quite a bit, it's still a three-dollar increase from Twitter Blue's current $4.99-a-month plan.
While we've now settled the score on what's happening with Twitter Blue, we're still left wondering whether or not Elon Musk will follow through on a possible Vine resurgence.
