Facebook launches a ‘Plus’ subscription that gives you extra features

Jay Peters is a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.After announcing tests of premium subscriptions for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp earlier this year, TechCrunch and Bloomberg report that Meta is launching a global rollout over the next few weeks and is also starting to test subscriptions for Meta AI. With the new offerings, Meta joins many other tech companies in changing up its subscription plans to bring in new revenues following substantial AI investments — Google, for example, recently lowered the price of its most expensive subscription and threw in YouTube Premium.Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus will cost $3.99 per month, while WhatsApp Plus will cost $2.99 per month. Instagram Plus adds features like the ability to spotlight a story once per week, extend the availability of a story for an additional 24 hours, and preview someone else’s story without showing up as a viewer. Facebook Plus will let you extend Facebook stories so that they’re available for 48 hours instead of 24 hours, among a list of other bonuses, mostly focused on interacting with stories:Pick Your App Icon: Change the Facebook or Messenger app icon on your phone to make it feel more unique.Extend Story Expiration: Set your Facebook story to last for 48 hours instead of the standard 24 hours, so people have more time to view it.Super Reactions: Send animated heart reactions that appear on your friends’ stories.Search Story Viewer List: Find specific viewers by searching by name in your story viewer list.Story Rewatch Insights: See the number of times your story was rewatched.Story Preview: See a mini preview of stories without showing up as a viewer. (Posters are notified that this feature exists)WhatsApp Plus adds features like the ability to pin up to 20 additional chats and use Premium stickers. TechCrunch says these subscriptions won’t replace its paid verification subscription, Meta Verified.Meta is also starting to test Meta One Plus, which costs $7.99 per month, and Meta One Premium, which costs $19.99 per month, and they’ll let subscribers do things like generate more images and videos with Meta AI. This means that the free version of Meta AI will now have usage limits in its Thinking mode and with video and image generation. The company will first test these AI-focused plans starting next month in Singapore, Guatemala, and Bolivia.For creators and businesses, Meta is testing two new plans. Meta One Essential will cost $14.99 and includes perks like the Meta Verified badge. Meta One Advanced costs $49.99 per month and, among other perks, will let subscribers show up higher in search results on Instagram and Facebook and will let Instagram creators offer clickable links in posts and reels. Meta will begin testing these plans starting later this week in countries including Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Thailand, and Bangladesh.Follow topics and authors from this story to see more like this in your personalized homepage feed and to receive email updates.Jay Peters