Twitter’s subscription service, Twitter Blue, is now available globally, allowing people all over the world to pay for the service. Despite being available in almost 50 countries, the expanded availability demonstrates the company’s determination to make Twitter Blue an increasingly essential component of the service.
However, the company hasn’t kept some of the promises it made regarding the service’s features. While the ability to receive a checkmark and write longer tweets are available, Twitter Blue subscribers still can’t access prioritized ranking in conversations or see half as many ads, even though these features were promised.
Related: Twitter to introduce a more expensive ad-free subscription
Twitter Blue Promises:
Elon Musk, the CEO and owner of Twitter, had promised prioritized ranking since November of last year, stating that the feature was “essential to defeat spam/scam.” Nonetheless, despite his efforts to make employees work under “hardcore” conditions, the feature is yet to materialize, along with other promises he made.
For example, he announced that Twitter would begin sharing ad revenue with Blue subscribers in February, but the feature has yet to start a month later. Musk also promised to open source the company’s algorithm on February 27th, which did not happen, but he has now pledged to do it on March 31st.
Also read: Mark Zuckerberg announces Meta Verified subscription, like Twitter Blue
Twitter Blue’s original relaunch under Musk faced difficulties. After the subscription went live in November, many people bought verified checkmarks to impersonate brands like Nintendo and celebrities such as LeBron James, causing signups to disappear soon after. The subscription was re-released in December and has been expanding since then.
News on Twitter’s Grey Checkmarks:
On Thursday, the company also revealed that it is now accepting applications from governmental and organizational accounts seeking a grey checkmark. Accounts that are eligible for it include heads of state, members of congresses or parliaments, headquarters-level, regional-level, and country-level institutional accounts.
The grey checks, along with the gold checks for companies, which Twitter may charge $1,000 per account, are intended to clear up the confusion caused by the blue check’s meaning, which has changed from “a person or organization that Twitter has verified” to “a person or organization that Twitter has verified or someone who pays for Blue.”
Musk has promised to remove the “Legacy blue checks” that indicated verification, which he claimed were “truly corrupt.” However, this hasn’t occurred yet. If someone with a blue check that doesn’t pay for Blue is clicked on, the message “This is a legacy verified account. It may or may not be notable” is displayed.
