One TikToker paid for Instagram’s newest subscription, ran what she called a “social experiment,” and finished it “ready to never use Instagram again.”
Her verdict arrived as Instagram rolls out Instagram Plus, a $3.99-a-month tier that gives paying members a toolkit built around stories and viewer activity.
Instagram frames the plan as a way to “help you express yourself, connect deeper with friends, and customize your experience in new ways.”
The company designed the offerings to “broaden the digital reach.”
Subscribers get exclusive perks. They can keep stories on screen past the standard 24-hour window, and the app pushes those stories to the top of feeds.
Members can also send “expressive reactions” in direct messages, so friends can show “extra support.”
The viewer-tracking tools drew the sharpest response.
Story Rewatch Count reports how many times people replayed a story, and a rewatch glyph appears beside the viewer count whenever one person comes back for another look.
Timestamps come attached. The app logs when each person first opened a story, then updates that time if the person returns.
Search Viewer Sheet offers a shortcut. Subscribers can check whether one specific person saw their post without scanning the full viewer list.
Story Preview works the other way around.
Subscribers can view someone’s story while staying off that person’s viewer list. The creator never learns who actually watched, and the viewer avoids any pressure to react.
Other tools let members conceal their own activity. Subscribers can post to their profile or highlights without the update appearing in friends’ feeds.
TikToker @suhaadada aimed her criticism at the rewatch insight. She pointed to the glyph and described a scenario in which the count misleads.
“This could be someone swiping through at a fast glimpse and seeing something that interested them enough to go back,” she explained.
She went further. “It tries to manipulate you into thinking that a viewer rewatch means more than what it actually is,” she said.
She also pointed to a gap in what ordinary users can see. Non-subscribers will not know who holds Instagram Plus or that their viewing habits are being tracked.
In her account, subscribers pay to access user behavior that “should be kept private.”
Critics argue that updates like these let companies profit at the expense of user mental health.
“At the expense of your own mental health as you start to wonder why someone is jumping to the top of your viewer list so much,” the TikToker said.
A Reddit user in the r/technology forum took aim at the pricing.
“If what you love is the ability to more conveniently keep tabs on crushes or enemies—by which I mean torture yourself—then Instagram nailed it,” the user ranted.
The same user added that the feature encourages obsessive tendencies.
Backlash has mounted across platforms. Critics claim the new offerings exploit digital addiction and represent a price paid to “drive people crazy.”
Social media users have called the subscription a “new low,” saying it gives people the capability to drive themselves crazy for $3.99 a month.
Commenters joined in with reactions of their own. “If you have Instagram plus stay away from me,” one commenter quipped.
Some users are looking past the current lineup.
They theorize that Meta, Instagram’s parent company, will eventually charge users for overall access across its platforms.
“Meta is slowly killing what used to be good,” one user lamented.
