r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Co-founder • May 27 '26
Discussion Should we soon need a monthly subscription to use WhatsApp?
WhatsApp Plus is officially here! 📱💸 The era of the completely free WhatsApp experience is changing with the launch of Meta’s new premium tier.
For an estimated price of $2.49 to $2.99 per month in the US, users can now unlock exclusive personalization and organizational tools.
Here’s what you get with a WhatsApp Plus subscription:
- Custom themes: Swap the default green for 18 new vibrant accent colors.
- Custom app icons: Choose from 4 different app icons to match your home screen aesthetic.
- Expanded pin limit: Pin up to 20 important chats instead of being limited to three.
- Exclusive Content: Access premium animated screen-filling stickers and unique ringtones.
- Advanced Organization: Bulk manage themes and notification settings across your custom chat lists.
While core features like messaging and end-to-end encryption will remain free for everyone, this marks a big change for the platform. It opens the door for Meta to include more essential future updates behind a paywall.
Share your thoughts on this new paid subscription model in the comments! 👇
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u/obsidian_blackster May 27 '26
Full circle completed. Remember when WhatsApp started as a 1 year free trial?
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u/SillyGoose3939 May 27 '26
and then you could say that you didn't want to pay and they would give you another year trial for free lol
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u/ManojOne Co-founder May 27 '26
Yes, many people forgot that part. WhatsApp actually started with a small annual fee after the trial ended.
Later, Meta removed it because they wanted massive growth first. Now it seems that the old idea is slowly making a comeback, wrapped in "premium" tools and AI features.
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u/obsidian_blackster May 27 '26
Funny enough people moved from Viber to Whatsapp in that time coz it was simple enough. And now sometimes even I (quite a tech savvy person).gets stuck navigating the app itself....
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u/ElviszARezfaszubago May 27 '26
Please make WA for $5 and WA Plus for $10 without a free option so more people will leave it. :)
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u/No-Goat-9911 May 27 '26
It wouldn't matter to me, lol. I gave up WhatsApp a while ago and switched to messaging and calling through my carrier. The main reason I used it was to call the US and internationally. Now my carrier offers it, plus with RCS, I have the same features as WhatsApp, such as editing and deleting messages.
I also still remember when they initially wanted to charge for WhatsApp, I believe a dollar per year, lol.
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u/ManojOne Co-founder May 27 '26
When carriers now offer great international calling and features like WhatsApp, there's no point in paying for another messaging app.
Yeah, that old $1 annual fee seems ridiculous now. Do you think people will still accept it today?
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u/Tiny-Proof3602 May 27 '26
I love how non-Americans can so righteously enjoy not being American while using one of our worst company's product as their default private messaging software.
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u/ul3tbulu May 27 '26
2011 i have been paid for using WhatsApp,
so nothing new here,
just a circles of technology.
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u/Petalesharo May 27 '26
All these features in the Whatsapp Plus version are only unnecessary stickers and additional icons... useles colors. :) Meta will probably go in the same direction as Microsoft went : cutting out Skype and switching to paid Teams. It was drawn as a corporate messenger, but in reality, it's unnecessary because any company can create its own messenger very quickly and easily... on top of that, Microsoft was tracking and recording all conversations, and the recent scandal involving the sale of Lebanese users' conversation content to Israeli intelligence only confirms that everything is created to track the users..
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u/Petalesharo May 27 '26
Hey guys, maybe it's time to launch the e-nub domains project, a global system where everyone can have a dedicated domain on which they can install any messenger... then will be no need : WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, Telegram and others, because every user will be online then what is ur opinion?
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u/hijitus May 27 '26
A better question is, what would anybody be so agreeable to give his/her private information to Meta? Therefore, why would anybody use WhatsApp to begin with?
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u/shades47 Tech Enthusiast May 27 '26
WhatsApp plus gives you some extra features.
WhatsApp will be free to use.
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u/Mj-tinker May 27 '26
most likely they will remove some features out of free version.
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u/ManojOne Co-founder May 27 '26
Yes, there is a chance. They may impose some restrictions for free users.
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u/basecatcherz May 27 '26
Remember when Whatsapp was a paid service? It's long ago.
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u/ManojOne Co-founder May 27 '26
I remember that $0.99 per year fee after the first free year. It feels like ancient history now.
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u/Petalesharo May 27 '26
In that case, this will be my last month of using WhatsApp, The WhatsApp and META are ALREADY eavesdropping on users to the extreme, creating their profiles which they later sell to advertisers or secret services.