Featured Image Credit: Carl Court / Staff via Getty
Hardcore Instagram users will now be able to take advantage of exclusive new features through a monthly paid subscription, as shelling out $3.99 lets you access enhanced control over your Stories, additional profile customization options, and far more.
Instagram's parent company Meta has been floating the idea of a paid subscription for a while now, with a number of countries offered a preliminary test period seemingly to see which features people would be willing to actually pay money for.
Opting for the subscription is entirely optional and the app itself will still remain free to use for the time being, letting you share posts and Stories with your friends and followers alongside interacting with the photos and videos of others, yet there are now a number of new features that are exclusive to Instagram Plus that you can only access through the monthly subscription.
Announcing the new subscription in a blog post on Thursday, Instagram advertises it as something that's "designed to give you more of what you love about" the app, offering "exclusive features to help you express yourself, connect deeper with friends, and customize your experience."
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New features can broadly be separated into those that affect Stores – arguably Instagram's most popular feature – and those that affect everything else on the app, so if you're a big Story sharer then it might be worth paying the $3.99 to take advantage of these additions.
Subscribing to Instagram Plus gives you the option to 'Spotlight' your Story, which Instagram claims will give it priority for your friends. Presumably this pushes it forward on the selection when you open the app, ensuring that your followers never miss one that you share.
You can also create an endless number of audience lists to share the right Story with the right people, and one of the biggest new additions is the option to extend a Story's lifespan to 48 hours over the 24-hour limit that has been in place since the feature's launch.
Having a look at your audience has never been easier too, as you can now see how many times your Story has been rewatched – although it doesn't look like it includes individual profile data – alongside the ability to quickly search among the viewers of your Story to save scrolling through, something that's handy if you want to see if a special someone has seen what you've shared.
Finally, there has also been a big upgrade to how you view other people's Stories, as you can now not only send a 'Super Heart' to express your adoration for what someone has shared, but there's also the option to 'preview' another person's Story without it counting as a view — which people have claimed will help you stalk an ex online.
While Instagram just added the option to rearrange your photo grid and add individual captions to each image in a carousel post, Instagram Plus subscribers will get an addition level of customization through the ability to change the font of your bio, pin up to 6 different posts, and share posts directly to your profile without it entering your follower's feeds.
Finally, there are also a number of custom app icons that you can choose from to make the experience of using Instagram outside of the app even better.
While people will definitely take advantage of the features available through Instagram Plus – with influencers likely seeing the $3.99/month fee as nominal to what it can offer them revenue wise – there has been a level of disappointment and disapproval amongst 'regular' users to the subscription.
Reacting to the new addition, one user said that it is "not even worth 1 dollar a month," with another claiming that "this is f***ing stupid."
Another post responded directly to Instagram's claim that the subscription 'gives you more of what you love' about the app, noting: "What I loved about Instagram is a chronological feed of photos posted by people I willingly follow and nothing more."
A fourth commenter argued that "the ONLY reason I'd pay for Instagram or FB is to never see ads or that other crap again," but you might not want to start giving Meta any ideas.
