Today, Mark Zuckerberg announced Meta Verified. This paid verification process will give your account a Blue Ticket, which provides confidence to those who follow or read your profile that you are indeed who you say you are.
Until recently, social media companies attempted to use algorithms to detect irregular behaviour, fake accounts etc but it seems they’re reaching the end of the line with what they can do both programmatically and with human review and instead are now moving to charge the real accounts to prove they are legitimate.
While Meta’s announcement today will certainly impact a large user base, Twitter Blue, their Verified checkmark system was the first to move to this paid model and there are some major differences between the two systems.
With Meta Verified, you’ll get:
- A verified badge, confirming you’re the real you and that your account has been authenticated with a government ID.
- More protection from impersonation with proactive account monitoring for impersonators who might target people with growing online audiences.
- Help when you need it with access to a real person for common account issues.
- Increased visibility and reach with prominence in some areas of the platform– like search, comments and recommendations.
- Exclusive features to express yourself in unique ways.
Meta Verified is available for direct purchase on Instagram or Facebook in Australia and New Zealand starting later this week. People can purchase a monthly subscription for (USD) $11.99 on the web and (USD) $14.99 on iOS and Android. In Aussie dollars, that translates to A$19.99/m on the web and A$24.99/m on iOS and Android.
By comparison, Twitter Blue costs just A$13.00 per month or the famous US$8/m on the web in America or US$11/m from the mobile platforms.
For that subscription, you get access to the following features:
- Edit Tweet: This highly requested feature gives you a 30 minute window to make a limited number of changes to published Tweets. Use it to make updates, tag someone, or reorder the media you attached. Edit Tweet currently only applies to original Tweets and quote Tweets.
- Bookmark Folders: Bookmark Folders let Twitter Blue subscribers group and organize Bookmarked Tweets into folders for faster discovery later. Twitter Blue allows you an unlimited number of bookmarks and Bookmark Folders which are always private.
- Custom app icons: With Custom App icons, you can change how your Twitter App icon displays on your phone. Choose from several colorful options. Check your settings regularly for new featured looks available for a limited time.
- NFT Profile Pictures: We’re adding NFTs as one of several ways to customize your Twitter profile so you can show off the NFTs you own in a hex-shaped profile picture on your Twitter account. After a temporary connection to your crypto wallet that allows you to set up an NFT as your profile picture, your digital asset displays in a special hexagon shape that identifies you as the owner of that NFT.
- Themes: Twitter Blue Themes let you choose from colorful options for your app theme.
- Custom navigation: This feature lets you choose what appears in your navigation bar, so you get quick access to the content and Twitter destinations you care about most. You can select at least 2 and up to 6 items to keep in your bottom navigation bar or restore to default if you change your mind.
- Spaces Tab: We’re testing a new interface within Spaces that gives easier access to audio content. The new Spaces Tab is a place to find podcasts, themed audio stations, recorded Spaces, and live Spaces. This feature test requires in-app language settings to display in English. It’s currently only available to Twitter Blue subscribers on iOS and Android devices, and a select number of people globally. Learn more about Spaces and this early access test of the new Spaces Tab.
- Top Articles: Top Articles is a shortcut to the most-shared articles in your network. This feature automatically lists the most-shared articles from people you follow—and people they follow, too—so you can easily find the type of content you want to read.
- Reader: Turn long threads into a more beautiful reading experience. We’ve designed Reader to let you enjoy your threads with less noise. Turn the Reader feature on when you tap the reader icon at the top of the thread, or use it to change your text size.
- Undo Tweet: Undo Tweet gives you the option to retract a Tweet after you send it, but before it’s visible to others on Twitter. It’s not an edit* button, but a chance to preview and revise your Tweet before it’s posted for the world to see. Once the Undo period is over, the Tweet is viewable to your followers and you can either leave it or delete it, like you normally would on Twitter.
- Prioritized rankings in conversations: This feature prioritizes your replies on Tweets that you interact with.
- Longer video upload: Share more content with your followers. Twitter Blue subscribers can upload videos up to ~60 minutes long up to 2GB file size (1080p) (web only). Learn more here.
- Half ads: Coming soon!
- Longer Tweets: Want to Tweet more than 280 characters? Longer Tweets allow Blue subscribers to Tweet up to 4,000 characters. You can also compose longer Tweets in a Quote Tweet or reply. Standard functionality like posting media, creating polls, and using hashtags still apply. Everyone will be able to read longer Tweets, but only Blue subscribers can create them.
- SMS two-factor authentication: As a Twitter Blue subscriber, you can add another layer of protection to your account with access to two-factor authentication via SMS. Please note that availability of text message two-factor authentication for Twitter Blue may vary by country and carrier.
There is however one feature that differs the most between the two platforms and that is the ability to make money from the platform.
In early February, Elon Musk announced that starting today (at least in the US), Twitter would start sharing ad revenue with content creators on the platform. He then followed up to confirm that eligibility would require the creator to subscribe to Twitter Blue Verified.
Given how new this is, there are not a lot of stories of people getting rich off their cut of Twitter’s ad revenue, but if you are deciding between the two, this may sway some users, combined with the cheaper price.
There’s no question that social networks have long struggled with spam/bots and impersonation accounts. Moving to require identity checks is almost certainly a good move, but what’s not clear is why they can’t build an automated system for review that doesn’t cost money, or why the fee needs to be as high as it is.
As with spam, a notional fee, compared to zero costs, would significantly reduce the economics of spam on the platform.
At A$19.99 per month, the Meta verification may span across Facebook and Instagram, but is that blue checkmark really worth more than Spotfiy where you can stream virtually every song on the planet, or compatible to the A$22.99/m for Netflix’s Premium plan.
Personally, I think many will select their most popular social platform and pay for one, but the idea that people are going to pay verification subscriptions for Twitter, Facebook is questionable. This is also unlikely to be the end of paid verification either, expect similar from Snapchat, TikTok and others as additional revenue streams.
If you’re wondering why these subscriptions cost more when signing up via the mobile apps, that’s due to the mobile platforms of iOS and Android taking their % on top, so they’ll support this every day of the week.
What do you think? Leave a comment and let us know if you’re subscribing to none, one or both Twitter Blue and Meta Verified.
