Meta testing a new premium subscription on Instagram with stealth view on stories

Instagram is testing a new premium subscription that gives paying users access to exclusive features, part of an effort to build a reliable revenue stream outside of the company’s core advertising business.

The list of subscribers-only perks include several related to Instagram’s Stories product, such as the ability to view another person’s Story without them knowing. Paying users can also create unlimited audience lists and extend a Story’s shelf-life by an additional 24 hours. Stories, one of the app’s most popular features, currently expire after 24 hours.

“Our hope from these tests is to understand what’s most valuable to people in a premium feature set,” an Instagram spokesperson said on Monday, confirming that the company is testing the premium subscriber tier in a few countries. TechCrunch, which first reported on the test, said the company is offering the subscriptions in Mexico, Japan and the Philippines, and charging just a few dollars per month.

Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc. has tried various subscription products over the years and offers one so people can support content creators they follow. Other advertising-dependent companies, including Snap Inc. and Elon Musk’s X, have also pushed into subscriptions, which are considered complementary to ads and provide a more predictable source of revenue.

Meta is also considering premium subscriptions for Facebook and WhatsApp, the company confirmed in February. — Bloomberg