Twitter launches Blue plan globally, will remove legacy verified checkmarks soon

Elon Musk’s Twitter announced on Thursday that it has launched its premium subscription plan Twitter Blue globally and that it will wind down its previous verification program soon.

The social media company relaunched the paid tier on iOS in December and on Android a month after that, but it was offered in only 50 countries until yesterday’s announcement.

With the new expansion, all Twitter users can now subscribe to Twitter Blue for various perks like the verification badge, half ads, priority in conversations, bookmark folders, custom navigation, the ability to undo and edit tweets, as well as posting tweets with up to 4,000 characters instead of 280. 

The monthly plan costs $11 in the United States when bought through Twitter’s mobile apps, but $8 when purchased through its website. The annual web pricing is $84, which is $12 cheaper than if you pay for it every month. Meanwhile, the company is also planning to launch a higher-priced tier that will remove all the ads on the platform, Musk revealed in January.

While it has been months since Twitter first introduced its Blue plan, it didn’t immediately kill its previous legacy verification program. But the company announced yesterday that it’ll start removing legacy verified checkmarks on April 1st, meaning that users who don’t subscribe to Twitter Blue will now lose their verification badges.