Imagine paying for a blue checkmark only to turn around and hide it.
That’s what might be happening, at least according to Alessandro Paluzzi who recently leaked an apparent screenshot of Twitter Blue’s upcoming settings. In the screenshot below, Twitter Blue settings now show an option to “Show or hide your blue checkmark on your profile.”
The blue checkmark, also known as a verification badge, is a symbol that denotes a user’s account has been verified as authentic by Twitter. It recently became an exclusive feature of Twitter Blue, the company’s paid subscription service to the social media platform. Meta recently also adopted paid verification for both Facebook and Instagram.
Of course, the screenshot only shows something that Twitter is potentially developing, and the feature could never see the light of day. However, if it does, it will mean that the main draw of Twitter Blue so far, the blue checkmark, might fade as something people want to showcase.
The company is reportedly sunsetting all legacy checkmarks starting on April 1st (April Fools Day), so there could be a future where the only people verified on Twitter are paying for it. For those who don’t want anyone to know that they are a person that actually pays for Twitter, which is likely a growing amount of people, hiding your checkmark is a good way to avoid that public shaming.
So, if you’re going to hide your checkmark, what’s the point of paying for Twitter Blue? That’s a good question, and will depend on if the company can make good on its other promises for the subscription service like better visibility on tweets, fewer ads, and revenue-sharing. Elon Musk has been promising those features to subscribers for months now, so we’ll see when it actually happens.
