After many reports that Twitter Blue would be priced at $19.99, Twitter chief Elon Musk has announced that the service will now cost $8 per month. This is quite a bit more than the current price of $4.99, but the service will now include the ability to get a blue Verified badge.

The verified badge has been elusive for some but easy to obtain for others. Going forward, it will become accessible to all as long as you are subscribed to Twitter's premium Blue subscription service. In addition to the verified badge, the service will also include priority replies, mentions, and searches, meaning that the verified user will hold priority on Twitter, making it less likely that a lookalike account could cause confusion.

Furthermore, verified accounts will also have the ability to tweet longer videos and audio. This feature is nothing new, as current Twitter Blue subscribers have access to this through Twitter Labs. As a final perk, Twitter Blue users will see half as many ads as regular users, which should be nice for heavy users. Musk did not share when this change would occur. Currently, the Twitter Blue subscription page is showing the old price of $4.99.

Twitter's verification system was originally introduced back in 2009 and was meant to provide users with a simple and easy way to distinguish between genuine and copycat accounts. In its early stages, Twitter reached out to people of importance in order to get them verified. But some years later, it made it possible for users to gain verified status by submitting an application. As you can imagine, the volume of requests that came in were overwhelming, so the company had to pause the application process.

Twitter would once again resume the process at a later date, with stricter criteria to weed out those that didn't really need a verified handle. Of course, this process is what made getting verified an elusive process. Some would apply and be approved in one shot, while others, with a substantial amount of followers, would be rejected time and time again. Is this new change better? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Source: Elon Musk (Twitter)