Meta has started testing a new premium subscription for Instagram in a few countries. As per a report by TechCrunch, the new subscription, Instagram Plus, will give subscribers access to many exclusive features while building an additional revenue stream for the company beyond its ad-enabled system.
The company has confirmed to TechCrunch that it is indeed testing the new subscription.
“Our hope from these tests is to understand what’s most valuable to people in a premium feature set,” a Meta spokesperson told Bloomberg.
What does Instagram Plus offer?
Reportedly, Instagram Plus subscribers will gain the ability to view other people’s Stories without the poster knowing they saw it. Subscribers will also be able to search their own viewer lists to quickly see if a specific person watched their content and check exactly how many times their own Stories were rewatched.
The new subscription will also allow users to extend the lifespan of a Story for an extra 24 hours, spotlight a specific Story once a week to push it to the front of their followers’ viewing trays, and send animated “Superlikes” to other users.
It will also allow subscribers to create unlimited audience lists for Stories, which will be different from the current ‘Close Friends’ list. The new feature would allow users to customise who sees their stories by grouping followers into different lists.
What will Instagram Plus cost?
The social media behemoth hasn’t officially confirmed where it is testing the new Instagram Plus subscription, but the TechCrunch report notes that the service is currently live in Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines. While the initial price of the subscription is said to vary depending on the market, the report notes that Instagram Plus costs approximately $1.07 to $2.20 per month in the initial test markets.
Notably, the Instagram Plus subscription is different from the Meta Verified subscription that the company had earlier rolled out for creators and businesses.
The company says it will be testing out the subscription in additional markets before it is finally rolled out to all regions. Notably, Meta had officially confirmed a couple of months back that it is looking to introduce subscription tiers for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
An earlier report by WABetaInfo had also revealed that WhatsApp is testing a paid subscription tier called ‘WhatsApp Plus’. The subscription would reportedly give users several customisation options for changing the theme, app icon, and accent colours. It will also reportedly give users an option of choosing between 14 app icons for the personal messaging app.
