Meta tests AI subscriptions, launches paid plans for Facebook, Instagram
What's the story
Meta has announced the global launch of its consumer subscription plans for Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. The new offerings include Instagram Plus ($3.99/month), Facebook Plus ($3.99/month), and WhatsApp Plus ($2.99/month). For a nominal monthly fee, users can access additional features such as profile customization options, super reactions on stories, and insights into story views, among other things.
User benefits
Why is Meta introducing subscription plans?
The new subscription plans are designed to give power users more from their social apps. The move also allows Meta to diversify its revenue streams beyond advertising, especially considering the limited growth opportunities for these apps in an already saturated global market. Facebook Plus and Instagram Plus focus on social expression, while WhatsApp Plus is all about personalization and messaging.
Feature additions
Instagram Plus brings several new features
The Instagram Plus plan offers a host of new features like the ability to see how many people have rewatched your story in total, and create unlimited audience lists for stories. Users can also highlight a story once a week for more views, extend its duration beyond 24 hours, preview it without appearing as a viewer themselves, and search their story viewer list to see who's watching, among other things.
Customization features
WhatsApp Plus comes with app themes and premium stickers
WhatsApp Plus comes with a different set of features, including app themes, custom ringtones, additional pinned chats, list customization options, and premium stickers. These additions are aimed at enhancing user experience on the messaging platform. Meta has also announced plans to test more subscription offerings for businesses and creators under the "Meta One" branding in the future.
AI offerings
New AI plans to be offered in 2 tiers
Along with the new consumer-focused subscriptions, Meta will also start testing two exclusive plans for its AI users: Meta One Plus ($7.99/month) and Meta One Premium ($19.99/month). The premium plan unlocks more capacity on higher compute queries, offering deeper reasoning for complex tasks in the Meta AI app or on the web. It will also offer enhanced video/image generation capabilities across all of Meta's apps.
Business subscriptions
Plans for creators and businesses
Meta will also test two more plans: Meta One Essential ($14.99/month) and Meta One Advanced ($49.99/month), for creators and businesses. The former offers a Verified badge, impersonation protection, and an enhanced linksheet where users can link out to their online presence across social channels/web. The latter includes all benefits of the Essential plan plus features like being featured in the Facebook feed or appearing higher in search results on Facebook/Instagram.