Beginning in early November, only iOS users with a monthly subscription fee of $7.99 could use the premium service (with no option to subscribe via other platforms like Android or the web). The opportunity to obtain Twitter's coveted blue verified checkmark was its most notable feature, and many users used it to impersonate a variety of brands and people. This caused the company to quickly stop the service's rollout.
Elon Musk, Twitter's new CEO, publicly criticised Apple's "secret 30% tax," saying the firm had mostly halted advertising on Twitter and was threatening Twitter's existence in the app store or making other demands for moderation before the news of the two-tiered pricing structure broke. Musk then apologised for some of his comments, calling them "misunderstandings," following his meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
To avoid paying Apple's 30% fee, Elon Musk is postponing Twitter's paid verification.
Twitter is still required to follow Apple's anti-steering regulations, which place restrictions on how applications can send users to their website to sign up for paid services. There is no way around these regulations. Although Apple recently relaxed some anti-steering restrictions, its laws continue to annoy software developers who refuse to pay the iPhone manufacturer's fee.
The story from The Information is quiet on the price for Twitter Blue on Android, where Google can take up to a 30% cut of in-app sales.