Meta is launching Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp subscriptions, with more to come, including AI plans

Meta is doubling its subscription offerings. The social media giant announced on Wednesday that it is now rolling out consumer subscription plans globally for its flagship apps, Instagram, Facebook and WhatsApp, and is beginning tests of new subscriptions for businesses, creators and Meta AI users.

For a few dollars per month, consumers subscribed to Instagram Plus ($3.99 per month), Facebook Plus ($3.99 per month), or WhatsApp Plus ($2.99 ​​per month) will have access to additional features, such as profile customization, super reactions, and story insights, among others.

In an announcement, Meta’s head of product, Naomi Gleit, noted that “more fun features” will be added in the future.

Meanwhile, Meta will begin testing other offerings, including professional plans for creators and businesses, and AI-focused plans for all users. These new tests will be called “Meta One,” which will serve as the company’s home for its subscription offerings in the future.

dead She confirmed that she was planning to offer a subscription Earlier this year, with Initial tests Rolling in the spring. The idea behind the consumer-targeted plans is to provide additional features for power users who want more from their social apps. It also allows Meta to diversify its revenue sources beyond advertising by extracting more value from its existing audience of billions, given the limited growth opportunities for these apps, which have already achieved global saturation.

The new “Plus” plans are designed to suit each individual app, with Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus focusing more on social expression, while WhatsApp Plus focuses on personalization and messaging.

However, the company tells us that the new plans do not replace its existing offerings, Meta verifiedwhich focuses on verification, impersonation protection, and additional support. (This may change over time, but for now, Meta is not terminating older plans.)

For starters, the new Instagram Plus plan gives subscribers access to additional features, such as the ability to see how many people have rewatched your Story in total, as well as the ability to create unlimited audience lists for Stories, beyond the “Close Friends” option. Users will also be able to highlight a Story once a week to get additional views, extend a Story beyond 24 hours, preview a Story without appearing as a viewer, search a Story’s viewer list to see who’s watching it, and more. Users will also be able to post directly to their profile and be featured without appearing in their followers’ feeds.

There are also other features like animated Super Heart reactions for Stories, custom app icons, customizable fonts for your profile bio, and access to additional Pins for your profile.

These features are designed to better serve content creators and those looking to grow their following and understand their audience, but they may also attract a large number of users.

Facebook Plus offers a similar set of features to Instagram Plus. However, WhatsApp Plus offers other features, such as app themes, custom ringtones, additional pinned chats, list customization, premium stickers, and more.

AI plans and more, including those for innovators and businesses

Alongside the launch, Meta says it will start testing more subscription plans, which is where things start to get confusing.

For Meta AI users, two plans will be tested – Meta One Plus ($7.99 per month) and Meta One Premium ($19.99 per month) with the same features, but the premium plan opens up more capacity on higher computing queries. This means that the Premium plan will provide deeper thinking for complex tasks (i.e. more “thinking mode” in the Meta AI app or on the web). It will also provide video and animation creation capabilities via Meta applications.

Meta AI will remain free for more mainstream users, but these plans follow the same path as other AI modeling providers that charge for additional compute and intensive usage. Meta says the plans will expand later in the weeks to bring more benefits to those using AI glasses.

Testing of the AI ​​plans is scheduled to begin next month, initially in Singapore, Guatemala and Bolivia.

Two more plans for creators and businesses will begin testing later this week, in markets including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Thailand and Bangladesh.

The Meta One Essential plan ($14.99 per month) will provide a verification badge, impersonation protection, and an enhanced link sheet where users can link to their online presence across social channels and the web, similar to Meta Verified.

The more expensive Meta One Advanced plan ($49.99 per month) will include the benefits of the Basic plan, plus the ability to appear in your Facebook feed, appear at the top of Facebook and Instagram search results, attract attention with a bold “Follow” button on Reels, and automatically send “Follow” invitations to people who engage with your content.

It can also help creators and businesses direct people to their websites or shop through links in Instagram posts, Instagram Reels, and through enhanced Facebook and Instagram profiles with their expanded link sheets. Not surprisingly, these plans include better analytics, including deeper, competitive insights on Instagram, and personalized audience insights on Facebook.

Advanced plan subscribers will have access to enhanced scheduling tools, tools for sharing access with other account admins (without sharing a password), and notifications that alert you when others on Facebook or Instagram reuse your content so you can request a rating to attribute credit to your original clip.

Glett acknowledged that Meta is still experimenting with these pro and AI plans at the moment, but aims to bring them all together under Meta One, where it will then continue to be updated and expanded over time.