Twitter is now offering its Twitter Blue tier as an annual subscription for those who want to save some cash.
Twitter Blue is now available as an annual subscription for people who want to save some money on their blue checkmark.
The revamped Twitter Blue subscription is one of many changes that owner Elon Musk has made since taking over the company in late 2022, with users receiving the blue verified checkmark as part of the deal. Other features include 50% fewer Twitter ads, the ability to post longer videos, and promised reply priorities in the future.
The Twitter Blue subscription, which can only be bought via the web or iOS, normally costs £8 / $8 per month, but those signing up for an annual package can pay £84 / £44 for instead. That’s on the web, at least. Those paying via iOS will have to cough up more, as The Verge notes – Twitter passes Apple’s 30% cut on to customers, charging them more to subscribe via App Store in-app purchases.
The move to get more money into its coffers isn’t a good look for Twitter at a time when it’s being sued for not paying rent at its office space in San Francisco. There have also been reports of nonpayment of employees in Singapore. Twitter famously fired around 50% of its workforce last year amid Musk’s cost-cutting attempts.
Twitter also recently caused user upset by removing API access for third-party apps, cutting popular ones off at the knees. Now, apps like Tweetbot and Twitteriffic are useless and look set to stay that way. After remaining silent for days, Twitter simply said that it was now enforcing API rules but stopped short of telling anyone what those rules actually were.
The result is that Twitter’s apps and website are now the only way to access its social network, a move thought to be driven by ad sales – third-party apps never displayed ads because they weren’t part of the API and Twitter made no money as a result.
