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I started my one-month free trial of Instagram Plus.
I wish I could say there was a valid reason, but alas, there was not. When I was viewing a friend’s story, Instagram offered me the trial, and I latched on without a second thought.
For years, the free version — the only version — of Instagram has allowed us to interact and communicate and, well, be social with media. We could post photo dumps, like stories and, when we saw a post that truly affected us, comment emojis. It was easy to know how to use the platform, and it gave us everything we needed.
Or so we thought.
Apparently, there’s more to offer. And thus, Instagram plus was born. What does this new version offer? A lot.
Instagram Plus lets users preview stories without appearing in the viewer list, see how many times followers have rewatched their stories and use a search bar to look up specifically story viewers. It also allows users to preview private messages so that they don’t mark as “read,” extend stories to 48 hours and create different audiences for specific stories, among other features.
Instagram gave us something we “need,” however these extra features are supposed to make us feel like we were missing something.
Some new features are actually useful. Personally, previewing a message without marking it as “read” is my favorite. It’s not to ignore people, but sometimes I’m unsure of how to respond, and I don’t want to seem rude by abandoning the messenger without an answer. However, I admit, there are times when I just don’t want to open a chat, maybe because I’m not in the mood to have a conversation, but I am curious about what it says.
So, yes, there are features I like. But there are other features that have me asking “why?”
For example, the option to view rewatches on stories: I understand that story insights are important for content creators with millions of followers. With this feature, you can tell which content draws people to your account and keeps them hooked. However, when you don’t have more than a thousand followers, knowing how many people rewatched your story is probably not as useful, unless you like overthinking.
And social media already gives us enough reasons to overthink. Communicating online means losing our ability to see the person’s reaction to what we’re saying or to what they’re looking, like our facial expressions, body language or tone. So when we don’t know why someone rewatched our story, we fill in the blanks for ourselves
Who rewatched your story? Why did they rewatch your story? Those are questions that might come up in your head, and personally, I enjoy peace. Some of these features give us information that is unnecessary.
Then, there are new fonts.
First of all, I barely put any text in my stories. Second of all, if I use text in the stories, I use the same way I have been using since 2019, when I first created my Instagram account. I tried using other fonts, but none of them convinced me. They all look too flashy, and I also don’t know how to style my stories so they can look all aesthetic and intentionally designed. So, the only thing that would help me with these new fonts is to be more indecisive about how to style my stories.
Just so you know, if your stories look really cool and stylish, I’m jealous of you. In a good way, of course.
I like some of these features, so Instagram Plus is not completely useless. However, that doesn’t make this version necessary.
Instagram wasn’t broken. I never heard anyone say that it would be cool to have new fonts, pin more posts so they are the first ones people see when they want to see other of your posts or preview messages and stories. Instagram already let us do everything we needed it to do. Thanks to this app, we were able to stay in contact with people we’ve met and grow our social circle.
Yet here I am, testing the solution.
It’s not that these features are completely useless. But the question would be whether we would ever have considered them necessary if Instagram had not put them behind a subscription.
We’ve gotten used to paying for more storage, entertainment, music, convenience and features. Subscriptions that offer us more have become one of the easiest ways for companies to get money from us.
There will always be a better version of everything, and Instagram is no exception.
That version could be useful for certain people, like content creators, but for me, it is only useful for one feature. And yet, I still opted for the free trial.
At least I still have 26 days to decide whether $3.99 a month will be worth spending. I already know I don’t need it. And yet, I still clicked the button.
Astrid Alomia (she/her) is a sophomore studying journalism with a concentration in public relations and a minor in marketing.
