It’s been one of those weeks where Meta seems to be trying to do five things at once, and somehow all five involve either more AI or more of your money (sometimes both). Let’s get into it.
First up, the big one:
Meta Launches Meta One
Meta officially launched Meta One, a new subscription lineup that’s replacing Meta Verified entirely.
Personal plans start at $2.99 a month and creep up to $14.99, while the business side, Meta One for Business, runs from $14.99 a month all the way up to $499 for the “Max” tier. Depending on what you pay, you get things like competitor tracking, deeper insights history, custom audiences, more links in your Reels, and an AI chatbot answering customer questions around the clock.
Sounds shiny, I know. Here’s the part that made me raise an eyebrow though: pricing is per platform. So if you wanted the full Meta One experience across Facebook AND Instagram, you’re paying for it twice. For most of the small business owners I work with, that math just doesn’t work out yet, especially when Meta is already sitting on an estimated 35 million paying subscribers and roughly $2 billion a year from these programs. They don’t need your extra $30 a month nearly as badly as you might think they do.
While we’re on the subject of Meta finding new ways to charge for things:
Meta’s Edits App Gets a Paid Tier
Meta’s video editing app, Edits, is getting a paid tier too. There calling it “Edits Plus.”
It’ll come with more cloud storage and deeper access to Meta’s AI editing tools, either as its own subscription or bundled into Meta One for Business.
Since its still in development, no pricing options have been released. However, Instagram’s own Adam Mosseri has said outright that the AI tools are expensive to run, which tells you everything you need to know about where this is headed.
If you’ve been using Edits because it’s free and does a fine job on Reels, that’s still true today. Just don’t build your entire workflow around it staying that way. Keep CapCut, or honestly your phone’s built in editor, in your back pocket.
Now for something I actually like:
Instagram Cracks Down on Undisclosed AI Profiles
Instagram is tightening up its rules around AI generated profiles. They’re renaming the “AI creator” label to “AI-generated profile,” and going forward, accounts that feature an AI generated person without disclosing it will see their reach quietly limited.
Important distinction here, this isn’t about using AI to smooth a photo or polish a caption, that’s still totally fine. It’s specifically about profiles built around a person who isn’t real. If that’s not you (and for my clients, it isn’t), this changes absolutely nothing. But if you or a client has been playing with a virtual spokesperson, now’s the moment to slap that label on before the algorithm quietly starts hiding you.
Worth noting: the reporting on this started in late August and Instagram hasn’t published an exact rollout date yet, so treat the timing as “soon” rather than “already live.”
And finally, the story that had my inbox buzzing this week.
Meta’s Muse AI Agent Lands with a Thud
Meta launched Muse, its first personal AI agent. It can draft your emails, manage your calendar, book your travel, and, I kid you not, negotiate on your behalf.
Zuckerberg posted a video across all of Meta’s platforms trying to sell us on it using his own life as the pitch.
Here’s the thing though, this launched just weeks after Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion (reported figures vary a bit by outlet) to settle state lawsuits over how its platforms affected kids’ mental health. And it seems like most people agree with me, the reaction across social media was overwhelmingly “hard pass,” with people citing exactly the trust and privacy concerns you’d expect from a company asking for even more access to your life right after a very expensive reminder of what happens when that trust gets broken.
Here’s my actual takeaway from all of it: none of this changes what already works. Real connection, real voice, real humans behind your brand, that’s still the thing your audience is craving, especially with every platform racing to bolt more AI onto everything. Let Meta chase its subscriptions and its AI agents. I’ll be over here helping people sound like themselves, which turns out to still be the best strategy nobody’s paying $499 a month for.
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