Twitter is working on a special tag that will highlight phone number verified accounts. Twitter also announce another test feature showing view counts for tweets, which some users already have access to for their own tweets under the label of “analytics.”
Linking an account to a number is one way to highlight that it was created with more effort than the simplest macro and could be used to filter out which tweets appear the most prominently or make it through the various levels of quality filters. Twitter also allows people to have the same phone number associated with up to ten different accounts, while developers can label automated accounts to let people know there isn’t a human behind each post.
Verified “blue check” accounts are already required to have a verified phone number or email address attached.