WhatsApp has officially announced its move into the subscription world with a new service called WhatsApp Plus.
According to WABetaInfo, if you decide to sign up, the perks are mostly focused on customisation. You will get access to exclusive premium stickers and the ability to overhaul the look of the app with eighteen different theme colours.
You can even choose a custom icon for the app itself, which will show up on your home screen and in the app drawer, allowing for a bit more personality than the standard green logo.
Besides that, the pinning limit is getting a significant boost. While regular users are stuck with just three pinned chats, WhatsApp Plus subscribers can pin up to twenty, making it much easier to keep track of important conversations.
There are also ten exclusive ringtones to choose from, along with a handy bulk settings feature.
This lets you apply specific settings to multiple chats or groups at once via custom lists. For example, if you set a specific theme for a list, any new conversation you add to it will have that theme applied automatically.
At the moment, WhatsApp Plus is only available to a small group of users while it undergoes testing, but a wider rollout is definitely on the cards. As for the price, it is set at EUR2.49 (~RM11.56) per month in Europe, PKR229 (~RM3.26) in Pakistan, and MXN29 (~RM6.60) in Mexico.
For now, the paid plan appears to be an Android-first affair, with support for iOS expected to arrive later down the line. It is worth noting that all the standard features we are used to remain completely free, including end-to-end encryption, so you won’t lose out on the basics if you choose not to subscribe.