On January 26, Meta announced that it was going to test premium subscriptions across its apps. The subscriptions will offer exclusive features and expanded AI tools, while ad-supported versions remain free.
Under the test, users are presented with a clear choice between two paths. People can subscribe to use Instagram, Facebook, and WhatsApp without ads, or continue using the services for free while agreeing to ongoing data use for advertising purposes.
Meta claims the subscriptions will “unlock productivity, creativity, and AI-powered features,” with each app receiving its own set of paid tools rather than a single bundled plan. The company isn’t committing to one configuration and plans in order to experiment with different feature sets and pricing models over time.
There is a third path. Just stop being a user. Maybe that choice isn’t clear enough. Push notifications are fucking evil. I removed the app and use FB as a PWA about once every six months. I might use it more if it had content from my friends or anyone I gave a fuck about, but instead it’s all promotions and suggestions.
Without the little red number creating FOMO on my phone, I have no impulse to check it. Yet I check Lemmy several times a day. I check Bluesky every couple of days. Because every time I open them, someone I want to hear from is posting something I want to see. You should try that, Zuck.
I haven’t touched a facebook product in almost 15 years and my life has been nothing but better for it.
Shit yeah that’s about how long for me. Gods, I remember talking about how cool and futuristic Facebook was back in like 08, but in my defense I was a middle schooler. I rapidly saw it morph into a hub of unpleasantness and bailed.
There are a few things facebook is better at than anything in my life - checking up on distant friends that I wouldn’t call normally but I want to know the big events in their life; ensuring my parent see pictures of my kids (we don’t live in the same state). However those things only need a couple minutes of my time per day, and that isn’t enough to make them a big company and so they keep shoving garbage that doesn’t make my life better in my face. That garbage takes up hours per day of many people’s time and is worth a lot to facebook.
Probably 4-6 months ago I finally reached my breaking point. Facebook used to be centered around friends. Sure, most of them are now dormant on the platform, but for those that were still active, they were still buried amongst piles of far-right bullshit that I never asked for and that wouldn’t go away no matter how much I clicked “see less like this.” I deleted the Android app and logged in via mobile browser. I still occasionally check the happenings in my industry’s Facebook groups and my HOA, but Facebook is otherwise dead to me.