Instagram has never exactly been a ‘safe haven’ for advertisements. Scrolling through Reels will yield at least one ad for every 3-5 scrolls. The same goes for the app’s home and explore pages. It’s not ideal, but their presence is minimal to the point of being almost invisible to a trained eye. If Meta’s latest experiment, which involves unskippable “ad breaks” passes the testing phase, that will no longer be the case.
Instagram Premium, when?
Your feed is probably safe. For now. Instagram confirmed that the screenshots of the new “ad break” feature — which quite literally puts a YouTube-like timer at the bottom of your screen while the ad finishes — circulating on social media are, in fact, real. @TheDanLevy was one of the first to bring attention to the new feature via a post on X.com before Instagram confirmed the new reality when speaking with TechCrunch.
Holy moly! Meta seemingly is now forcing us to watch ads in our feeds on Instagram!
The app legit stopped me from scrolling past this ad which is just a bonkers move to me. pic.twitter.com/740EXjGyl2
— Dan Levy ✡ דניאל לוי (@TheDanLevy) June 1, 2024
“We’re always testing formats that can drive value for advertisers,” a Meta company spokesperson told TechCrunch. “As we test and learn, we will provide updates should this test result in any formal product changes,” the company said.
Dan Levy later encountered the “ad break” again, managing to see Instagram’s take on the new feature within the app. “You’re seeing an ad break. Ad breaks are a new way of seeing ads on Instagram. Sometimes you may need to view an ad before you can keep browsing,” the feature reads. So, nothing we didn’t already know.
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What is interesting is Instagram’s use of the word “sometimes.” We reckon it might indicate Meta’s decision to begin charging its advertising partners higher rates for those advertisements that cannot be skipped while keeping plain ol’ skippable ads at the old rates. We wouldn’t put it past Meta to launch a YouTube Premium-type subscription model for, er, dedicated users to rid the app of ads entirely.
We haven’t yet seen evidence of “ad breaks” infecting the app’s Reels section on either X.com or Reddit, but we imagine it’s already in the idea mill. As for when you’ll need to contend with “ad breaks” of your own, Instagram hasn’t said. If you’re lucky enough to have avoided them thus far, cherish the remaining (mostly) ad-less moments.