If you’ve been waiting to pay for WhatsApp, your time has almost come. WhatsApp Plus, Meta’s new premium subscription tier, has started rolling out to a limited group of iPhone users after spending the past month in Android testing.
According to WABetaInfo, the iOS rollout is tied to the latest version of WhatsApp on the App Store. Not everyone will see the option right away, since availability depends on your account and region. But if you’re one of the early ones, you can find the subscription inside WhatsApp’s settings.
What’s actually in the subscription
WhatsApp Plus is focused entirely on customization, not core features. Subscribers get 18 color themes to swap out the standard green interface. There are also 14 new app icons, premium sticker packs with animated overlay effects, and 10 new ringtones. The pinned chats limit also jumps from 3 to 20. Pricing varies by region. In Europe, WABetaInfo reports it’ll run €2.49 per month. Meta hasn’t confirmed US pricing yet, and WABetaInfo notes final pricing could still shift before a wider release.
The free version of WhatsApp isn’t changing. Messaging, calls, media sharing, and end-to-end encryption all stay exactly as they are. No core features are moving behind a paywall, at least for now.
WhatsApp Plus is only available on WhatsApp Messenger, not WhatsApp Business. Meta has been working toward paid tiers across all its apps for a while now. Earlier this year, Meta confirmed to TechCrunch that it’s planning premium subscriptions for Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp.
There’s also a separate WhatsApp subscription that would remove ads from Status and Channels in the works. That’s a different product from WhatsApp Plus entirely. In practice, WhatsApp Plus looks a lot like Telegram Premium: optional, cosmetic-focused, and cheap enough that it won’t feel like much of a commitment for heavy users.
WhatsApp plans to expand access to more accounts over the coming weeks.
