Overview
- Meta product chief Naomi Gleit announced the launch of Facebook Plus, Instagram Plus and WhatsApp Plus in a video released Wednesday, saying the services will sit alongside existing free and paid options.
- Instagram Plus and Facebook Plus will offer specific story and creator tools such as longer story visibility, anonymous story previews, and expanded story analytics to show how often content was rewatched.
- WhatsApp Plus will focus on personalization with features like premium stickers, custom ringtones and the ability to pin up to 20 chats compared with the current lower limits.
- Meta did not confirm global prices but multiple outlets report likely monthly fees of about $3.99 for Facebook/Instagram and $2.99 for WhatsApp, and the company plans to test higher-tier AI subscription bundles under a unified 'Meta One' brand.
- The move follows Europe-only paid, ad-free options from 2023 and is widely seen as an effort to reduce ad dependence and pay for costly AI compute and data centers, a shift that could raise fresh regulatory and consumer concerns over paid personalization models.