Twitter Blue has been rolled out in India, days after the social media giant announced to provide additional perks for its blue subscribers. The users who avail this subscription will have access to several features like editing tweets, colourful themes, undoing a tweet and longer tweets with a limit of 4,000 characters.
The new feature has been made available on iOS as well as Android devices with a monthly subscription fees of Rs 900. The monthly subscription for web users is Rs 650 and the annual subscription is Rs Rs 6,800.
Other countries where Twitter Blue has been made available include the US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, the UK, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy, Portugal, Spain, Indonesia, and Brazil.
Here is all you need to know about Twitter Blue:
What are the Twitter Blue features?
Twitter Blue users can edit their tweets within a window of 30 minutes, though the number of changes that one can make is limited. "Use it to make updates, tag someone, or reorder the media you attached. Edit Tweet currently only applies to original Tweets and quote Tweets," Twitter explains.
Subscribers can also organise bookmarked tweets into folders for "faster discovery later". The feature also allows subscribers to change the Twitter app icon on their phones and can also choose themes from "colorful options" for the app.
Twitter Blue provides users the option of "custom navigation" that helps them choose what appears in their navigation bar to ensure "quick access to the content".
Reading long threads has been made easier with "Reader" feature that has been designed to "let you enjoy your threads with less noise." Subscribers can also change the text size with it.
Other features include longer tweets of 4,000 character limit, longer videos of upto 60 minutes and 2GB file size, the option to undo tweets before making them visible to other users. "It’s not an edit* button, but a chance to preview and revise your Tweet before it’s posted for the world to see. Once the Undo period is over, the Tweet is viewable to your followers and you can either leave it or delete it, like you normally would on Twitter," Twitter explained on its 'Help Center' page.
With prioritized rankings in conversations, Twitter will prioritize replies on tweets that users interact with.
These features will be available to Blue subscribers with verified phone numbers who will get a "blue checkmark" on approval.
Elon Musk and the Twitter Blue saga
According to SEC filings, Elon Musk became Twitter's largest shareholder in April 2022 when he purchased a 9.2 percent stake in the company. He also joined the board. Musk’s new Twitter Blue entitled users to the ‘blue checkmark' for $7.99 a month. Twitter's Help Centre defines it as an "opt-in, paid subscription".
However, one major problem with Musk's "Blue Verified" was that anyone with $7.99 could purchase a blue tick and pretend to be a genuine account. A BBC report highlighted the chaos caused post the subscription roll out. Following the chaos, the blue checkmark subscription was put on hold.
On December 12, 2022, Twitter Blue was relaunched with a brand-new ecosystem of features and verification badges. The cost of the subscription has increased from $7.99 to $8 for customers who use the website to purchase it and to $11 for customers who use iOS. There are also multiple-colored checkmarks indicating the various account types. Undo-Tweet, Themes, Bookmarks, and other features were available on Twitter Blue as well. An ad-free experience was not available to subscribers of Twitter Blue. However, Twitter guaranteed that subscribers will only see half as many ads as free members. It said "Twitter Blue subscribers see 50% fewer ads on their Following and For You timelines".
Within the ambit of this, two badges were introduced which included the standard Blue checkmark and a new 'Gold' checkmark specific to Twitter for Business accounts. The company also released a new 'Grey' checkmark for government-owned Twitter handles.