Twitter to wind down legacy checkmarks on April 1st as Blue becomes available globally

Got a legacy verified checkmark on Twitter? Prepare to lose it unless you can pay at least $8 a month, as Twitter is set to phase out its original verified checkmarks system next week.

In a recent announcement on its platform, Twitter said that on April 1st, it will remove legacy checkmarks from accounts. The news comes after the platform also made its subscription service Twitter Blue globally available.

On April 1st, we will begin winding down our legacy verified program and removing legacy verified checkmarks. To keep your blue checkmark on Twitter, individuals can sign up for Twitter Blue here: https://t.co/gzpCcwOpLp

Organizations can sign up for https://t.co/RlN5BbuGA3…
— Twitter Verified (@verified) March 23, 2023

Legacy checkmarks were given to high-profile accounts like politicians, famous personalities, journalists, and other public figures to distinguish them from fake accounts. However, when business mogul Elon Musk took over Twitter back in October of last year, he eventually made verified checkmarks available to Twitter Blue subscribers.

Twitter Musk then announced in December that they will eventually remove all legacy checkmarks, claiming that the way they were given previously was "corrupt and nonsensical." Since then, all legacy verified checkmarks displayed a description that its holder "may or may not be notable."

If a user wants to regain their checkmark, they need to subscribe to Twitter Blue, which will set them back $8 if they pay from the web or $11 if they do it from their iPhone or Android app. However, the checkmark will now state that they are verified because they are subscribed to Twitter Blue.

The Twitter Blue subscription doesn't just come with a checkmark, as it also allows users to edit their tweet even after they have posted it, send 4,000-character tweets, make their replies more visible to others, and continue using SMS-based account authentication (a weird perk, we must say). The company also aims to halve the number of ads a user sees.

It is currently not known if Twitter will remove all legacy checkmarks in one go or in batches. It also remains to be seen see how many users who will lose their legacy verified checkmark will subscribe to Twitter Blue just to keep their checkmark. For now, we'll have to wait and see.

Source: Twitter