News

Twitter Blue now available for Android, looks like it violates ToS

Do you want to pay $8-11 a month to get a check mark that says “I produce/am content that makes Twitter money, and I’m paying for that opportunity?” Well if you’re on Android you now can. A blue checkmark on Twitter, which once signified you were a known personality that had been vetted, now just shows you verified with a phone number that wasn’t a Google Voice or similar one.

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Pic from the web page Jan 20, 2023 – $8 a month ($96 yearly) or you can pay $84 for a year subscription and save $12

Twitter Blue is $8 a month if you sign up from a web browser, $11 if you go through an app store. As I recall this alternate price and payment location is explicitly not allowed by the Play Store and App Stores terms of service, which is one of the reasons that lead to Fortnite being banned from Apple’s App Store and later the Google Play Store back in 2020.

Fortnite not on the Google Play Store in 2023 still.
Search done January 20, 2023. No Fornite for me.

I can’t remember if they ever got back on Apple’s side, but it doesn’t appear they even show in searches on the Play Store. Pic above from web browser, US, Jan 2023. Mirrors what I got in the Play Store app.

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Pic from the app Jan 20, 2023

Will be interesting to see if Twitter gets the Fortnite treatment. There might be a social media exemption in the Google Play Developer terms of service but I’m not seeing it, nor have I heard claims of developers who got kicked off for multi-pricing attempting to claim said exemption.

Anyway, it’s there, even if they receive the Fortnite treatment that took months to enforce and I suspect Twitter would take longer.

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Paul E King

Paul King started with GoodAndEVO in 2011, which merged with Pocketables, and as of 2018 he's evidently the owner. He lives in Nashville, works at a film production company, is married with two kids. Facebook | Twitter | Donate | More posts by Paul | Subscribe to Paul's posts

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