Twitter adds new feature to its X Blue subscription; Lets users hide the verification checkmark
Elon Musk has been trying to make X (formerly known as Twitter) appealing to advertisers again. In the last few weeks, he has rebranded the company, promised to turn X into an everything app, is working towards bringing a new video feed, started ad revenue sharing for verified users, and is adding new features to its X Blue subscription (formerly Twitter Blue subscription). The latest addition to the stack is a new toggle button that will allow users to show or hide the verification checkmark, which is also known as the ‘blue tick’.
A Twitter user posted images from the X Blue settings to showcase the new feature. He said, “The ability to hide your checkmark from X Blue is now live, just popped up for me”. Interestingly, the setting also comes with a message that says “some features may not be available while your checkmark is hidden”, and “using some Blue features can still reveal that you have an active subscription”.
Why is X letting users hide the verification checkmark
The question is a simple one, but its implication is rather not. The subscription tier for any app, also known as the premium user base, is the most prized possession for any platform and they try their best to highlight them, not let them hide it away. From Meta’s blue badge to Twitch subscription, the problem developers have always had to solve was how to make the premium users stand out so others also want that and start subscribing.
But Twitter, or now X, is a different platform, which is suffering from a particular issue. Anyone that frequents Twitter will be able to vouch for the fact that many users find Musk to be a highly polarizing personality and that has resulted in people essentially being divided into pro-Musk or anti-Musk groups. From everyday users to celebrities such as US politician Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and author Stephen King have all had to choose sides or at least make their leanings clearer. And due to this, having a verified checkmark is often seen as a sign of favoring the owner of X, which can impact the kind of interactions and experience on the platform they get.
It appears that the microblogging platform has realized that its earlier offering of adding the blue tick as a bundled benefit to the subscription might not have been that great a choice. And as the platform is adding a wide range of features for verified users — from unlimited DMs to access to TweetDeck (XPro) — the blue tick can do more harm than good in bringing new subscribers.
There is a chance that the reason behind the decision is not influenced by the constant bickering of these two groups, and X is simply making the blue tick more customizable to the users’ preferences, however, we doubt it.
