GoKawiilis a senior reporter covering technology, gaming, and more. He joined The Verge in 2019 after nearly two years at Techmeme.
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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)
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