Instagram Plus subscription service will cost you £2.98 a month – how do you get it?

Meta has launched Instagram Plus,but what are its new features? (Photo Illustration by Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

Meta has officially launched Instagram Plus,one of the many subscription services to be rolled out on its social platforms.

Last week,tech giant Meta announced plans to launch paid subscription plans for its Facebook,Instagram and WhatsApp mobile apps as it moves away from historic reliance on advertising revenue.

The first is Instagram Plus,which Meta says was designed to ‘give you more of what you love about Instagram’.

Meta has stressed that the free version of the app will not change and that the subscription is an optional upgrade for people who ‘want more control,deeper insights,and premium features.’

Instagram Plus: What are the new features?

The Instagram Plus subscription introduces 11 new features for users. (Meta)

Instagram’s Plus subscription service offers new features across three areas; socialising with friends,seeing previews and insights,and customisation.

They include:

Give your story priority to friends

Send animated hearts that ‘burst across the screen’ to friends to celebrate their stories

Create unlimited audience lists

Extend the length of time your story is displayed to 48 hours

Preview stories of others

See how many times stories were viewed

Check if a specific person has viewed your story

Choose your own app icon from a curated selection

Customise the font of your profile

Pin up to six posts to your profile

Post directly to your profile or highlights without it appearing in friends’ feeds.

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How to get Instagram Plus

Meta has already begun rolling out Instagram Plus globally. A video shared by Adam Mosseri,the head of Instagram,says you can sign up to the subscription plan by going to into your profile’s settings.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/DZK34RqhrSr/

What other subscription plans are coming?

WhatsApp and Facebook are also expected to get Plus subscriptions within the coming weeks.

While details at the moment are thin,Meta’s head of product Naomi Gleit said the subscriptions would combine ‘enhanced features that our community already loves’ with ‘new subscription plans that offer premium features for those who want to unlock more from our apps and AI glasses.’

‘These subscription plans offer richer ways to express and connect across our apps with more fun features to be added,’ she said in an Instagram video.

WhatsApp is one of the apps affected by the changes (Picture: Dilara Irem Sancar/Anadolu via Getty Images)

Features for the other apps were not confirmed but,like Instagram Plus,it is believed that Facebook Plus will allow users to access better analytics,widen their audience reach,and customise their profile.

WhatsApp Plus,on the other hand,will focus more on personalisation,including custom ringtones and app themes.

Eventually,Meta plans to consolidate its brand offerings under a new name,MetaOne. 

‘We’re starting with plans that give people who use Meta AI more to work with. More capacity,bigger,more complex requests,and more room to create.

Meta’s head of product,Naomi Gleit,shared the ‘exciting news’ on Instagram (Picture: Pedro Fiuza/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

‘For businesses and creators,we’re offering premium tools that allow you to enhance presence,supercharge content,automate tasks,and protect your brand.’

Ms Gleit stressed that Meta was still working out ‘how to bring this all together in a way that makes sense’ and said users could expect to see the company testing the new subscription models.

‘While we’re still testing and learning,eventually we see MetaOne as the one place that brings our subscriptions together across all of our apps.

‘This is just the beginning,with a lot more value to come.’