Twitter Blue’s relaunch has reportedly been delayed once again, meaning anyone who wanted to buy Twitter’s useless blue tick badge will have to wait a bit longer. At this point it’s probably best to assume it won’t arrive until you actually see the option to sign up on your account.
Platformer and The Verge report that Twitter’s subscription service will not return this Tuesday as CEO Elon Musk had originally announced two weeks ago. Twitter Blue is instead being held back indefinitely while the social media platform figures out how to avoid the 30 percent fee Apple charges developers for in-app purchases.
Mashable has reached out to Twitter for comment, but expects no reply but the howling rush of wind over thousands of desks left empty by Musk’s firing spree.
Apple’s fee was apparently an unpleasant shock to Musk, who took to Twitter this week to misleadingly decry it as a “secret 30% tax.” Despite Musk’s complaint, Apple’s 30 percent fee has actually been public knowledge for over 14 years, the company’s then-CEO Steve Jobs having literally announced it onstage at an iPhone event in 2008. Apple also takes a reduced 15 percent fee from smaller developers that earn less than $1 million per year.
But now that Musk himself is aware of Apple’s fee, Twitter is reportedly attempting to circumvent it by refusing to sell Twitter Blue subscriptions as in-app purchases on iOS. Anyone who uses an iPhone and wants to sign up to Twitter Blue will presumably be directed to do so via other means, such as Twitter’s website.
Apple now allows developers to inform users of payment options outside of their iOS app after a class-action lawsuit caused it to change its rules last year.
If and when Twitter Blue does finally return, Platformer also reports it will cop a one-cent increase in pricing from $7.99 up to an even $8. Users will also be required to verify their phone number in order to sign up, which is likely an effort to curb the rampant impersonation plaguing Twitter practically since the moment Musk took the helm.
Musk’s many rapid and ill-considered changes to Twitter have drastically eroded public trust in the company in just a month, with advertisers fleeing the platform in droves. Yet no matter how clearly disastrous many of the billionaire’s decisions have already proven themselves, he seems determined to enforce his questionable ideas regarding how Twitter should be run, come hell, high water, or bankruptcy.
