Elon Musk to Charge iPhone Users More Money For Twitter Blue

Elon Musk is reportedly planning to charge iPhone users more money to sign up for Twitter’s Paid verification service, Twitter Blue through Apple’s App Store.

According to The Information, Musk told some of his employees that anyone who uses an iPhone to pay for Twitter Blue will be charged $11 a month — and not the $8 which is to be charged if one signs up through the web.

The Twitter CEO had previously announced to charge $8 per month for users to have a blue check mark next to their name as a new method to generate revenue on the social platform. However, this iPhone upcharge is likely over the 30% charge that Apple imposes on developers for in-app purchases which Musk suggested in a now-deleted meme that he’d rather “go to war” instead of paying Apple’s cut.

Meanwhile, last week Musk said in a tweet that he had met with Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, California, and resolved the misunderstandings — some of these being the allegations made by Musk against Apple threatening to remove the Twitter App from the App Store.

“We resolved the misunderstanding about Twitter potentially being removed from the App Store,” Musk said in a tweet after meeting Cook. “Tim was clear that Apple never considered doing so.”

The revamped Twitter Blue was initially launched earlier last month but suspended days later after several fake verified accounts took over the microblogging site. Musk later announced that the company would hold off the relaunch of Blue until there is high confidence in stopping impersonation. He later tweeted saying that the subscription service would relaunch on Nov. 29th saying he wanted to make sure the service was “rock solid” only to change his mind again and postpone it to Dec. 2nd — which would later be delayed as the company tried to skirt Apple’s 30% App Store charges.