Meta Tests Instagram Plus: Pay to Stalk Stories Anonymously and Get 48-Hour Posts
Meta is testing Instagram Plus, a premium subscription that lets you view Stories anonymously, extend Story duration to 48 hours, and see who rewatched your content. Testing is live in Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines at prices as low as $1/month.
What You Get
Anonymous Story viewing: Watch anyone’s Story without appearing in their viewer list. Yes, Meta is literally selling the ability to stalk.
48-hour Stories: Stories normally disappear after 24 hours. Subscribers get an extra day without needing to add them to Highlights.
Story rewatch count: See how many times people rewatched your Stories. Useful for creators and narcissists alike.
Unlimited audience lists: Create as many custom audience lists as you want, beyond the standard Close Friends limit.
Story spotlight: Pin one Story per week to the top of your followers’ Story trays.
Animated Superlikes: Because regular likes apparently aren’t enough.
The Pricing
Instagram Plus is currently priced at 65 PHP (~$1.07/month) in the Philippines and about $2.15/month in Mexico. If it launches globally, expect higher pricing in Western markets.
The Bottom Line
Meta is following the subscription playbook that every social platform is now exploring. The anonymous viewing feature is the real draw — it monetizes the one behavior Instagram has always made visible. Whether users will pay for the privilege of invisible lurking at scale remains to be seen.