IG rolls out paid “invisible stalking of your ex-boyfriend’s story” connections! Meta starts testing subscription member accounts

Meta is testing multiple paid subscription plans for “Instagram Plus” across different markets. The strongest feature is invisibly viewing other people’s Stories—your presence will not be detected at all. This began after Meta announced its subscription plans in January, with the monthly fee starting at less than NT$40.
（Background: Meta smart glasses face a federal class action lawsuit: users sued in court after privacy was allegedly leaked—what do lawyers think?）
（Additional context: AI unicorn Manus founder was “restricted from leaving the country” by China! Beijing reviews Meta’s acquisition case—does the $2 billion deal face uncertainty?）

Meta is quietly testing a new paid offering. TechCrunch has confirmed that Instagram Plus is currently live in pilot testing in markets such as Mexico, Japan, and the Philippines. The core selling point is letting users “stay hidden” when viewing others’ Stories—your name will not appear on the viewers list.

Meta previewed this service as early as January 2026. At the time, the company announced that it would roll out subscription tiers for three platforms: Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp. Now, Instagram Plus is the first version that’s actually been launched, and it’s also Meta’s first step into the subscription market for everyday users.

7 Features

The Instagram Plus test version has previewed the following 7 features:

• Invisible viewing of Stories: the other person can’t see that you’ve browsed
• Rewatch counts: you can check how many times your Stories have been “rewatched,” and by whom
• Custom viewer lists: you can create multiple lists and precisely control who can see each Story
• Extending Stories: Stories can automatically be extended by an additional 24 hours
• Spotlight promotion once per week: increases the exposure of a single Story
• Animated Superlike: send an animated “Superlike” on someone else’s Story
• Viewer search feature: search whether a specific account has seen your Story

Among them, “anonymous viewing” is the feature most people want to use, and it’s also the part of the overall plan that’s most likely to spark debate.

Monthly fee under NT$40, but the controversy is significant

On the X platform, charges have started becoming widespread, and it has also directly introduced a creator revenue-sharing mechanism—you can imagine how much competitive pressure that could put on Meta. Snapchat+ has also already amassed millions of paid subscribers, and Meta definitely doesn’t want to stay out of the paid market for too long.

But the “anonymous viewing” feature has also drawn criticism from netizens. Some people point out that this could make unhealthy community behaviors even worse—for example, online stalking of an ex-boyfriend or ex-girlfriend. Others who have tried it say that modern people already have “subscription fatigue.” With the fact that they’re already paying for Spotify, Netflix, and YouTube Premium, an additional monthly IG fee just feels annoying.

As of now, Instagram Plus has not announced a timeline for launching globally. Meta also hasn’t explained when Taiwan or other Asian markets will be included in the testing scope. Hopefully, these new subscription features won’t lead to even more addiction and misuse on social media platforms.