Hello from New York! I have finally returned to the homeland after my insane six-week hoops trip through Thailand and Germany. Took a few weeks off from the newsletter to get my bearings, but we’re back, baby.

And boy, we’ve got a fun chat for today. Instagram launched a thing, and we gotta talk about it. We’ll cover:

—Jack Appleby

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Instagram got us to pay for blue checkmarks a few years ago, so now it’s time to launch another subscription.

Meta is testing Instagram Plus, a subscription service that adds 7 new features to your Instagram, including anonymous story viewing, super hearts (huh?), multiple story audiences, and a few that might actually be worth it to brands.

It's priced under $3/month and currently live in Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines. The US isn't confirmed yet, and Meta’s already said features could change, but the pattern with these tests is pretty predictable—if retention holds, we're next.

So let's talk about what's actually in here, whether any of it makes sense, and who (if anyone) should pay for it.

Story Extension (48 hours instead of 24 hours): this one could be pretty valuable to both brands and creators. Seems safe to assume a higher % of your overall followers will see a story if it’s up twice as long? Stories are one of the better ways to reach your core followers, too, which for brands is likely their bigger spenders as well. Pretty good value, imo.

Multiple Custom Story Audiences: This would enable you to set different groups of people to see different Instagram Stories… but I doubt the juice is worth the squeeze. There isn’t much value in splitting which of your followers—you aren’t gonna make enough content to justify that, and your content likely isn’t so niche that it doesn’t make sense to all your followers. The one use case I could imagine for brands: making a custom story audience for your Influencers, Affiliates, and UGC creators, almost to brief them on happenings. But for most brand and creators, regular stories + close friends is gonna be plenty.

Searchable Story Viewer List + Rewatch Insights: These sound useful in theory. But then what? There's almost nothing actionable from knowing a specific person rewatched your Story four times. Anddd you will learn things about people you did not want to learn. No good will come of this.

Super Hearts for Stories: Basically, you get an animated Super Heart whenever you like someone else’s story. I already hate the idea of regular people having this feature. Dudes already have fire emojis to toss at thirst traps—this isn’t Hinge, they don’t need Super Likes. Admittedly, I can again see the value for brands and creators, since it’ll feel extra special when they like a follower or influencer’s stories.

Anonymous Story Viewing: I hate this so, so much. Why are we enabling lurking. Why are we monetizing lurking. Why are we monetizing lurking, while also giving these lurkers additional insights in the other direction about who watches their stories via rewatch data and searchable viewer list? Those are in direct tension with each other. You’re surveilling followers more carefully while letting paying users surveil you with zero accountability. The viewer list has always functioned as a soft accountability layer. If you're watching someone obsessively, they should know. This feature should absolutely not be sold.

Spotlight (Boost one story per week): Now this is really interesting. Once a week, you can boost your story so it appears first in your followers’ Stories tray. I’m a little surprised they’re offering this… that’s incredibly powerful and a hugeee win for something that should probably be a very expensive ad buy. Reminder: this subscription isn’t even $3/month. Kind of a no brainer if this is offered here.

Brands: If Instagram Plus launches in the US, it’s a no brainer. It costs basically nothing, Spotlight + 48 hour stories could be incredibly valuable, Super Hearts have clear community plays, and that’s easily enough to justify the bill.

Creators: Again, it’s a pretty obvious yes for the same reasons as brands. In this day and age, any chance you can to get extremely affordable reach with your own audience is worth it.

Everyday users: Any Average Joe who buys this should be put on a watch list. The entire feature set is creepy for anyone not monetizing their content. That Anonymous Viewing element is gonna get abused by both insecure and predatory humans.

Probably not.