News

Twitter Verification Badge Is Now Available To The Public

Twitter has relaunched its public verification program, allowing anyone who meets its qualification criteria to get their account verified.

Published

5 years ago

May 25, 2021

Joanna Melki

twitter's verification badge is now available to the public

Twitter’s account ownership verification program (aka Twitter verification program) launched in 2009 to reduce the risk of impersonation, but getting the strongly desired blue checkmark has been impossible for most users of the platform — until now.

After publishing a draft of its new verification policy last year, Twitter is now finally relaunching its public verification program, allowing anyone who meets its qualification criteria to get their account verified.

“We’re excited to share that starting today, we’ll begin rolling out our new verification application process and reviewing public applications for verification on Twitter,” writes Twitter in the official announcement. “Today’s application rollout marks the next milestone in our plans to give more transparency, credibility, and clarity to verification on Twitter.”

Twitter

According to Twitter’s updated verification criteria, the following six categories of accounts can now quality for verification:

Government
Companies, brands, and organizations
News organizations and journalists
Entertainment
Sports and gaming
Activists, organizers, and other influential individuals

Additional account categories are planned to be introduced later this year, and they should extend the verification criteria to encompass scientists, academics, and religious leaders.

Also Read: Twitter Is Testing Two New Useful Features

In addition to belonging to the right category, Twitter also wants users to behave well before verifying them. Everyone who has misbehaved on the platform during the last 12 months and has been suspended for seven days or 12 hours for breaking the rules will be automatically rejected.

How To Apply For Twitter Verification?

To apply for the blue Twitter checkmark, you need to:

Log in to your Twitter account.
Go to the Account Settings tab.
Choose Identity verification.
Provide your official email address, website, or government ID.
Wait up to several weeks for your account to be verified.

That’s right, Twitter said that the verification process could take up to several weeks, depending on the current demand. However, it should typically take only a few days. Users who end up rejected can reapply 30 days after receiving the decision.

News

Instagram Redraws Its Wordmark And The Internet Reads “Instagzam”

Instagram’s first wordmark refresh in a decade arrives with new fonts, a restrained gradient — and a Reddit verdict of sidegrade.

Published

4 days ago

August 14, 2026

Nour Nasir

Instagram

Although Instagram’s famous camera icon hasn’t changed, the company has refreshed the handwritten wordmark at the top of its app. This is the first redesign we’ve seen in ten years, and one the internet promptly set about renaming.

“The wordmark at the top of the app hasn’t changed in 10 years, so it was time for a refresh,” Instagram head Adam Mosseri wrote in a post on August 13, describing the new version as “cleaner and more modern” while keeping references to the original design.

Instagram says its team explored hundreds of options — all-caps lettering, camera-inspired concepts, even literal handwriting — before returning to script. “Script reflects individuality, so referencing that felt right,” Instagram director of product design Jasmine Probst said in Meta’s announcement. “The new wordmark is bolder and simpler, with touches of unexpectedness. It cues individual expression, a personal voice, both of which have always been core to Instagram”.

The wordmark is part of a broader brand overhaul: an updated Instagram Sans typeface, two new fonts — the hand-drawn Instagram Pen and Instagram Mono — plus refreshed motion and layouts, and more restrained use of the signature gradient. The wordmark is rolling out globally now, with the rest arriving throughout 2026 and beyond.

Also Read: Spotify Will Now Tell You If Your Favorite Artist Isn’t Real

The design mixes cursive and print lettering, some characters connected and others floating free. That hybrid approach, combined with unusually shaped “s” and “r” characters, led some users to conclude the logo actually reads “Instagzam”. On the r/logodesign subreddit, one user said the wordmark looked “fan-made,” like something built in Canva; another called it “an unsettling mix of manuscript and cursive”; a third summarized it as a “sidegrade” — or, inevitably, a “zidegrade”.

Not everyone was hostile to the new look. Some found the half-cursive design stylish and surprisingly readable, while others called it an improvement on its predecessor, and one commenter argued Instagram was simply adopting minimalist branding later than everyone else. Either way, the platform now has a refreshed identity, three updated fonts, and an unofficial new pronunciation.