Report: Elon Musk Delays Twitter Blue Launch Again as Squabble with Apple Heats Up

Twitter has once again delayed the launch of its Twitter Blue subscription service, which allows users to purchase a verified badge for $8 per month as owner Elon Musk continues his public feud with Apple over its 30 percent in-app purchase fees.

Forbes reports that according to internal messages shared by a Twitter product manager this week, the launch of Twitter Blue has been delayed to “make some tweaks.” Twitter plans to no longer offer subscriptions to its Twitter Blue service via its iPhone app when it relaunches as owner Elon Musk takes issue with Apple over its 30 percent charge for in-app purchases on its platform.

One of the changes reportedly includes requiring users to authenticate via phone number to subscribe to the service. Musk initially planned to launch the service on Tuesday, but has now delayed the relaunch until December 2 — but this timeframe is also subject to change.

Twitter will no longer have to pay a Apple a 30 percent cut of all subscriptions by not offering Twitter Blue as an in-app purchase. This likely means that the subscription would be accessible on Twitter’s website itself, allowing Twitter users on all platforms to access the service. Before the service was paused, it was only available to iPhone and iPad users.

Musk recently claimed that tech giant Apple has “mostly stopped advertising” on the platform. Musk tweeted directly at Apple CEO Tim Cook asking him to explain why.

Musk later claimed that Apple had threatened to remove the Twitter app from its App Store, but hadn’t told Musk why it was doing so. Shortly afterward, Musk highlighted the 30 percent tax Apple charges to developers for all in-app purchases on its platform:

A recent report claims that Apple was the top advertiser on Twitter in the first quarter of 2022, spending approximately $48 million on ads on the social network. Apple’s spending alone accounted for more than four percent of Twitter’s revenue in that quarter.