Twitter Inc this Saturday launched a subscription service for its social media platform for $8 a month, which includes the blue “verified” badge, in an updated version on Apple’s App Store.
In a updating apple ios devicesTwitter announced that those who “sign up now” can receive the coveted blue checkmark next to their usernames, “just like the celebrities, businesses, and politicians they already follow.”
According to the iOS notification, other benefits of the update include “half the ads”the ability to post longer videos to Twitter, and priority ranking for quality content.
Twitter owner Elon Musk teased the new service earlier this week in his bid to monetize the social network and make it less reliant on ads. Twitter is currently free for most users.
Today’s update indicates that the new service with verification will be available in the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
“As soon as we confirm it works well in the initial set of countries and have the translation work done, it will roll out worldwide,” Musk said in a tweet on Saturday.
However, according to a tweet from Twitter product executive Esther Crawford on Saturday, the new Twitter Blue service is available but has yet to go live.
“The new Blue is not available yet – the sprint towards our launch continues, but some people may see us making updates because we are testing and pushing changes in real time,” he noted in a tweet.
Earlier this week, Crawford went viral after she retweeted a photo of herself sleeping on the office floor at Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters after the Musk takeover. “When your team works 24/7 to meet deadlines, sometimes we #SleepWhereYouWork.”