Meta launches subscriptions for Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, with AI plans to follow

Meta is intensifying its focus on subscription services. On Wednesday, the social media giant announced the global rollout of consumer subscription plans for its flagship apps — Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp — and the start of testing new subscriptions for businesses, creators, and Meta AI users.

For a few dollars each month, subscribers to Instagram Plus ($3.99/month), Facebook Plus ($3.99/month), or WhatsApp Plus ($2.99/month) get access to additional features, including profile customization, super reactions, story insights, and more.

In the announcement, Meta’s head of product, Naomi Gleit, mentioned that “more fun features” are coming in the future.

Meanwhile, Meta will start testing other offerings, including professional plans for creators and businesses, and AI-focused plans for all users. These new tests will be branded as “Meta One,” which will become the company’s hub for its subscription offerings going forward.

Plus Plans Do Not Replace Meta Verified

ILLUSTRATION – May 16, 2024, Schwerin, Germany: The Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp apps are displayed on a smartphone screen. These apps are owned by Meta, the parent company of Facebook. The European Commission has opened proceedings against Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, over suspected violations of minor protection laws. Photo: Jens Büttner/dpa Image Credits: picture alliance / Contributor (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Meta confirmed earlier this year that it was planning subscription offerings, with initial tests rolling out in the spring. The consumer-focused plans are designed to provide extra features for power users who want more from their social apps. This also helps Meta diversify its revenue beyond advertising by extracting more value from its billions of existing users, given the limited growth potential for apps that have already reached global saturation.

The new “Plus” plans are customized for each app: Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus emphasize social expression, while WhatsApp Plus focuses on personalization and messaging.

However, Meta says the new plans do not replace its existing Meta Verified offering, which focuses on verification, impersonation protection, and additional support. (This could change over time, but for now, Meta is not phasing out the older plans.)

For starters, the new Instagram Plus plan grants subscribers access to extra features, such as seeing the total number of rewatches on your Story, creating unlimited audience lists for Stories beyond the “Close Friends” option, spotlighting a story once a week for more views, extending a story beyond 24 hours, previewing a story without appearing as a viewer, searching your story viewer list to see who's watching, and more. Users can also post directly to their profile and highlights without showing up on their followers’ feeds.

Other features include Super Heart animated reactions for Stories, custom app icons, customizable fonts for profile bios, and additional pins for your profile.

These features are designed to better serve creators and those aiming to grow their following and understand their audience, but they may also appeal to heavy users.

Facebook Plus offers a similar feature set to Instagram Plus. WhatsApp Plus, however, provides different features, such as app themes, custom ringtones, additional pinned chats, list customization, premium stickers, and more.

Image Credits: picture alliance / Contributor (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

AI Plans and More, Including Plans for Creators and Businesses

Alongside the launch, Meta says it will begin testing additional subscription plans, which is where things get more complicated.

For Meta AI users, it will test two plans — Meta One Plus ($7.99/month) and Meta One Premium ($19.99/month) — with the same features, but the Premium plan unlocks more capacity for higher-compute queries. This means the Premium plan would offer deeper reasoning for complex tasks (i.e., more of a “thinking mode” in the Meta AI app or on the web). It would also provide more video and image generation capabilities across Meta’s apps.

Meta AI will remain free for casual users, but these plans follow the same model as other AI providers that charge for additional compute and heavier usage. Meta says the plans will expand in the coming weeks with more benefits for AI glasses users.

The AI plans will begin testing next month, starting in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia.

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

The Meta One Essential plan ($14.99/month) will include the Verified badge, impersonation protection, and an enhanced linksheet that allows users to link to their online presence across social channels and the web, similar to Meta Verified.

The more expensive Meta One Advanced plan ($49.99/month) includes all Essential plan benefits, plus the ability to be featured in the Facebook feed, appear higher in Facebook and Instagram search results, get noticed 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 drive traffic to their website or shop through links in Instagram posts, Instagram Reels, and enhanced Facebook and Instagram profiles with expanded linksheets. These plans naturally include better analytics, such as deeper competitive insights on Instagram and custom audience insights on Facebook.

Advanced plan subscribers get access to optimized scheduling tools, tools to share access with other account moderators (without sharing passwords), and notifications that alert you when others on Facebook or Instagram reuse your content so you can request a label crediting your original reel.

Gleit acknowledged that Meta is still experimenting with these AI and professional plans for now, but aims to consolidate them under Meta One, where they will continue to be updated and expanded over time.