Twitter now lets paying Blue subscribers hide their shame

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Now rebranded as “X,” Twitter has decided to play hide and seek with verified checkmarks. Elon Musk’s pet project has gone full Hogwarts, allowing its paid users to make their blue ticks disappear.

Poof! Just like that.

Last year, Twitter (or should I say X, or maybe Ex-Twitter?) introduced this paid verification malarkey with the launch of Twitter Blue, which, in the spirit of keeping things confusing, is now called XBlue.

The company’s help page, appropriately titled ‘About Twitter Blue,’ has been updated to say that even if you decide to play this hide-and-seek game with your checkmark, it might still pop up in some places.

They didn’t bother elaborating on these mysterious “places,” but who doesn’t love a good mystery?

“As a subscriber, you can choose to hide your checkmark on your account. The check mark will be hidden on your profile and posts. The checkmark may still appear in some places and some features could still reveal you have an active subscription. Some features may not be available while your checkmark is hidden. We will continue to evolve this feature to make it better for you,” the help page states.

The idea is that this will let users enjoy the perks of a subscription without flashing their verified status around. The hide-and-seek option will be available in the “Profile customization” section of account settings.

In March, Alessandro Paluzzi, an app equivalent to Sherlock Holmes, noted that Twitter was working on a feature with ID verification.

Subscribing privately while enjoying verified benefits

The paid verification caused quite a stir, as it was hard to tell the difference between the legacy verified accounts of notable people and users who just threw some cash at the checkmark.

In April, Twitter decided to remove legacy checkmarks, but then, in a plot twist worthy of a soap opera, reinstated the checkmark for top accounts — even if they didn’t pay for it.

Since its makeover, the company has been rolling out features like a 10,000-character limit for posts, a 3-hour-long video upload limit, fewer ads on the timeline, and, most recently, ad revenue sharing for subscribed users to encourage more posting on the platform.

The platform also threw in encrypted DMs for verified users in May as a cherry on top.

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Editors’ Recommendations:

• Twitter replaces the bird logo with “X.”
• Twitter X CEO changes username; trolls immediately snag it
• New Twitter Blue launches on iOS, $8/month for verified checkmark
• Elon Musk’s investment in Twitter is almost entirely gone

Kevin Raposo

Kevin is KnowTechie's founder and executive editor. With over 15 years of blogging experience in the tech industry, Kevin has transformed what was once a passion project into a full-blown tech news publication. Shoot him an email at kevin@knowtechie.com or find him on Mastodon or Post.