Instagram lets creators DM their subscribers and share exclusive content in the new ‘Subscriber Home’ tab

Instagram creators that offer paid subscriptions to their fans will have more ways to share exclusive content, thanks to a set of new features Meta announced on Thursday. The social media giant is also allowing Instagram creators to directly DM their subscribers in a more close-knit setting.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the new subscription features on Thursday in an Instagram Story, where he also provided a preview of the new functionalities launching on the platform. Creators will be able to share exclusive Reels and Feed Posts to their subscribers.

Fans can easily find these posts through a new dedicated Subscriber Home tab for subscriber-only content. Instagram will also allow creators to directly communicate with their subscribers through group chats.

From Mark Zuckerberg (@zuck) / Instagram Story

These subscriber-only group chats will be different from the usual channels, where creators can directly reach out to their fans. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said in a video that each group chat will let creators DM up to 30 subscribers. This means creators are getting a chance to communicate with their fans in a more close-knit setup.

Instagram has been introducing new features in an apparent attempt to compete better with TikTok. For one, the Meta-owned platform has been focused on making Reels one of the main features of the app. It also quickly introduced ways on how creators can monetize Reels on Facebook and Instagram.

On the other hand, one of the criticisms TikTok has received is the lack of a monetization program, where creators have a more defined and regular flow of income regularly. And the introduction of Instagram Subscriptions seemed to be one of the ways Meta intended to compete with TikTok on this aspect.

“We want Instagram to be the best place online for creators to make a living. And a really important thing to creators everywhere is sustainable income because, at the end of the day, if you’re a creator, you’re a business,” Mosseri noted in the same video. “And a great way to establish some sustainable and predictable income is through subscriptions.”

The Instagram Subscriptions alpha went live last January and was made available to a small group of creators. But Mosseri said they have since expanded the service to “tens of thousands of creators in the United States.” It remains unclear, though, when subscriptions will roll out globally.

Photo by Omkar Patyane from Pexels