Twitter plans to charge $11 per month for a Twitter Blue subscription on the iPhone in order to account for the 30 percent cut that Apple takes from in-app purchases, reports The Information. On the web, Twitter Blue will be priced at $7 per month.
Prior to when Twitter Blue was paused, Twitter was charging $7.99 for a subscription, but the pricing will change before it relaunches. According to The Information, some employees have been briefed on the new pricing, but Twitter CEO Elon Musk is known for making snap decisions, so it is still not yet clear if plans could change.
The higher price point on the iPhone will allow Twitter to provide Apple with its 30 percent cut of in-app purchase proceeds without significantly cutting in to Twitter's bottom line. The pricing difference will likely encourage most customers to subscribe on the web, allowing Twitter to avoid in-app purchase fees.
Other companies like Spotify have in the past charged higher prices on the iPhone than on the web, but this often leads to confusion for consumers who do not understand why the prices are different on a device to device basis. Apple does not have an issue with companies charging more for subscriptions in apps than on the web.
The Twitter Blue pricing changes come after a short dispute between Twitter and Apple. Musk last week criticized Apple's App Store fees and claimed that Apple had "threatened to withhold Twitter from its App Store," but he later walked that statement back following a meeting with Apple CEO Tim Cook.
Musk and Cook met at Apple Park, and afterward, Musk said they had a "good conversation" and that there had been a "misunderstanding" over Twitter being potentially removed from the App Store.
Twitter is planning to relaunch Twitter Blue on Friday. Twitter Blue subscriptions were paused after Musk included a verification checkmark with Twitter Blue, allowing companies, celebrities, and other high-profile individuals to be impersonated by anyone with $8 to spend. Twitter Blue has not been available since November 11.
With the relaunch, Twitter Blue is expected to include different badge colors for corporations, government accounts, and individuals, as well as restrictions on changing usernames and limits on signups for newer accounts.
