X Blue users can now conceal their verification badges

When Twitter Blue, now known as “X Blue,” was initially introduced, one of its key attractions was that users could obtain the highly sought-after blue checkmark by paying for the service. However, in recent months, subscribers have faced criticism for spending $8 per month or $84 per year on this feature. TechCrunch has now observed that the company has added a new functionality for X Blue members on its support page: the option to conceal the verified checkmark on their account.

In the Profile Customization section of Account Settings, subscribers will now find a new Hide Your Blue Checkmark option that they can select. When the feature is activated, the badge will no longer appear next to their usernames in their profiles or messages. However, the company cautioned that it may still be visible in some places and that some features may not be available to them when their checkmark is hidden. It didn’t say which features would be disabled, but Twitter has rolled out several changes specifically for paying users since Elon Musk took over.

It has increased the message limit for paid users to 25,000 characters and is even working on new tools for publishing long-form content. The site has also extended its video limit to 3 hours. At the same time, the social network has become less and less attractive to free users. It announced in July that it would limit the number of DMs sent by non-paying users to curb spam, and previously set a hard limit on how many tweets a user can see per day “due to extreme data scraping.” .” Although the restriction was temporary, unverified accounts were initially limited to 600 posts per day.

App developer Alessandro Paluzzi first noticed the option to hide checkmarks in March. Based on the screenshots shared by Paluzzi, the verification process remains the same, with users having to submit an ID to verify their identity. Now, it’s simply not obvious at first glance that someone is paying for X Blue.