Your Instagram feed is about to be transformed.
Meta has begun testing a premium Instagram subscription, the tech giant confirmed to Gizmodo on Monday.
The testing is currently taking place in at least three countries. Users in Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines have been seeing the option to sign up for an Instagram Plus membership priced at a range of approximately $1.07 to $2.20, equivalent in the local currency, according to TechCrunch.
The premium features will mostly target Instagram Stories, a 24-hour-only disappearing post that has grown in popularity among users while regular posting on the grid has gradually decreased. Users who are subscribed to the premium subscription will be able to view Instagram stories without the poster of said Story seeing, search through their viewer list to see if someone specific has already viewed it, and view how many people have gone back and rewatched their stories.
Subscribers will also be able to extend their Stories to last 48 hours, give Superlikes on Stories, and increase the visibility of one Story per week via a Spotlight feature that brings it to the front. Premium users will also be able to create multiple specific audience lists to post Stories for, going beyond just a select Close Friends list that is available for regular users.
Meta confirmed to TechCrunch earlier this year that it will begin testing premium subscriptions across Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
Meta has already offered Meta Verified, a paid verification badge subscription for Instagram and Facebook akin to X’s Premium features, since 2023. But these new premium features would differ from the business-focused subscriptions to target average users instead.
It was speculated that at least one of the subscriptions would involve an AI agent courtesy of Manus, a Singapore-based AI agent company that Meta acquired for $2 billion in December, after app sleuth Alessandro Paluzzi claimed to have discovered an Instagram feature that would enable users to “research, create, and build with Manus.” In January, Paluzzi also claimed to have uncovered features that would allow users to see who doesn’t follow them back, which is seemingly not yet being tested by Meta, along with some of the features that were eventually rolled out in the current tests. Just last week, Paluzzi shared another discovery that Instagram was allegedly working to automatically download Reels for offline viewing.
Meta is so far only exploring the features that are being tested in Instagram Plus, and none are set in stone for a future premium offering.
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