‘Instagram Plus’, a new premium subscription service with exclusive perks, has been spotted
With lots of Story-focused features
💰 Meta has been testing a new Instagram Plus subscription model in some nations that unlocks exclusive features behind a paywall
👀 A lot of them focus on Instagram’s Stories feature, allowing users to do things such as letting a post stay up for more than 24 hours, and see who’s rewatched a story
❤️ Screenshots posted by social media consultant Matt Navarra also mention things such as creating “Spotlight” stories and the option for a “superheart” when liking a story
🌎 Meta has confirmed Instagram Plus is available in a few countries, with anecdotal evidence showing the Philippines and Mexico to be among them
Instagram could be set to get a new “Instagram Plus” subscription service that introduces exclusive features behind a paywall.
According to screenshots from social media consultant Matt Navarra posted to LinkedIn, a subscription to “Instagram Plus” could bring features such as creating multiple “audiences” for stories, and the ability to have a story post stay up for more than the requisite 24 hours.
You could also see who has rewatched your story, search the list of viewers, preview stories posts and create “Spotlight” stories. The screenshots also mention something called “super hearts” for when you react to a story.
Meta has confirmed to other news outlets (thanks, Engadget) that Instagram Plus is available in a “few countries” at the moment, with a dedicated help page on the Meta website stating that it isn’t available to everyone at the moment.
The spokesperson also noted that the features mentioned in Navarra’s screenshots were real and expanded that a preview function would allow people to see some of someone else’s story without showing up as a viewer. Furthermore, they said that “our hope from these tests is to understand what’s most valuable to people in a premium feature set.”
Early versions of the Instagram Plus subscription appear to be priced reasonably affordably, with the service existing in the Philippines for 65 PHP per month (approx $1.07 in USD) and Mexico at $39 MXN per month (approx $2.15 in USD).
It would appear Meta is following in the footsteps of fellow social media app Snapchat, whose Snapchat+ subscription service has been a major driver of non-advertising revenue for Snap since its launch in 2022.
Moreover, Meta has said that it’s been looking to boost subscription revenues, too, and has recently been pushing its Meta Verified subscriptions for the blue checkmark, plus new link-sharing features in Instagram captions and limits on link-sharing in Facebook for non-subscribers.
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Reece Bithrey is a journalist with bylines for Trusted Reviews, Digital Foundry, PC Gamer, TechRadar and more. He also has his own blog, UNTITLED, and graduated from the University of Leeds with a degree in International History and Politics in 2023.