Social Media Platform X Raises Prices For Premium Subscriptions - 1

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Social Media Platform X Raises Prices For Premium Subscriptions

  • Written by Andrea Miliani Former Tech News Expert
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

The social media platform X updated its pricing plans and increased its Premium+ subscription near 40% in several markets. In the United States the price went from $16 per month to $22, and from $168 per year to $229. It has been similar in other regions.

In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!

  • X increased its Premium plan prices from $16 per month to $22.
  • The company explained that it has to do with enhancements, a completely ad-free experience, and more benefits for members.
  • X Premium+ members have access to the trends analytics tool Radar and more time to use Grok’s AI models.

“X Premium+ is now completely ads-free, providing an uninterrupted browsing experience,” wrote X. “This significant enhancement is reflected in the new pricing.”

X promised to enhance premium users’ experience on the platform and provide benefits like access to Radar—a digital tool to analyze trends in the platform in real-time—and more time to use Grok’s AI models.

Content creators can also expect updates in their premium membership as X updated its revenue model to favor engagement and content quality over ad visualizations.

X’s premium price now at $22 is significantly higher compared to similar plans on other platforms. Meta charges $14.99 per month for Instagram and Facebook, YouTube $12.99 per month, and Snapchat+ is $3.99 per month.

The company recently launched a free version of its AI model Grok —their flag AI model with multiple improvements —with a limit of up to 10 queries every two hours.

Instagram Tests Feature To Highlight Missed Content From Friends - 2

Image by Webster2703, from Pixabay

Instagram Tests Feature To Highlight Missed Content From Friends

  • Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
  • Fact-Checked by Justyn Newman Former Lead Cybersecurity Editor

Instagram is experimenting with a new feature designed to help users catch up on content from friends that might have gone unnoticed.

In a Rush? Here are the Quick Facts!

  • Unseen Story Highlights appear after finishing all current Stories in the tray.
  • The test targets curated Highlights, not standard Stories that vanish after 24 hours.
  • Only unseen Highlights from the past week will be displayed to users.

As first reported by TechCrunch , the social media platform is testing a feature that displays unseen Story Highlights from mutual followers at the end of the Stories tray, located at the top of the feed.

“We’re always working on new ways to help people connect in Stories and are testing bringing recent Highlights to the end of the tray with a small group of people,” a Meta spokesperson told TechCrunch.

Social media expert Ahmed Ghanem was the first to identify the feature in testing.

#Instagram is testing a new Highlights Story feature that displays highlights from profiles you follow as Stories. It seems to work as a way to catch up if you missed the original content 🔗 Follow my WhatsApp Channel for more updates: https://t.co/0JyLtIkvM8 pic.twitter.com/1TXbB4G4ub — Ahmed Ghanem (@ahmedghanem) December 17, 2024

Meta clarified to TechCrunch that the feature allows users to view unseen Story Highlights from the past week. However, these Highlights will only appear once a user has viewed all the current Stories in their tray. For users who follow a large number of accounts and rarely finish their Stories queue, these Highlights may remain unseen.

Unlike standard Stories, which disappear after 24 hours, the test focuses solely on Highlights, offering a new way to revisit stories that users choose to preserve on their profiles.