India, April 21 -- WhatsApp has created a brand based on three principles: free communication, excellent user privacy, and minimal clutter. Thus, when Meta announced they are trialing a subscription service for WhatsApp called WhatsApp Plus, it is significant. While the pricing seems low-level, this appears to be a sign of Meta's future thinking about messaging services as subscription-based models instead of as simply a remote messaging service supported by advertisements.

WhatsApp Plus is currently being trialed to a limited number of users by Meta. Various reports mention features such as custom themes, premium stickers, the ability to change app icons, additional pinned chats, new ringtones, and the ability to sort chats. In the firs...