Instagram may soon show you ‘unskippable ads’ between posts

Today, content monetisation is the bread and butter for almost every platform, whether it is X (formerly Twitter), YouTube, or now Meta-owned Instagram. A recent report highlighted how the popular photo and video-sharing smartphone app is testing ‘Ad Breaks’ between posts.

The advertisements will likely be unskippable and could range between three to five seconds on the platform. However, the development wasn’t exactly well received by avid users, and several have taken to various social platforms to express their displeasure.

Instagram's 'Unskippable Ads' feature: What's there to know?

Instagram, so far, has always had its way of feeding ads to users. Whether it’s in the way of a promoted post, sponsored content or between stories; however, the new feature may vary slightly. The platform seems to be moving away from the concept of ‘soft ads’ and is testing interruptive breaks between posts.

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The new ads will have a three to five-second timer and will essentially stop you from viewing a sponsored post until the ad has run its course. Instagram will also send a pop-up message informing the user that they are witnessing an Ad Break.

A Reddit post, published by an anonymous Instagram user, expresses how the feature could drive them to quit the platform for good. Another also states how ad breaks are a ‘terrible business decision’ for Instagram. Many believe that adding the element of friction could cause disruption in viewing, and cause displeasure.

When will you start seeing ads on Instagram?

So far, there’s no saying when Instagram might implement Ad Breaks for a larger audience. The Meta-owned platform seems to be testing the feature for a small subset of its users and there’s no saying if or when it rolls out to everyone. However, Instagram seems to be testing the waters and analysing sentiment for its audience.

That said, the move seems to be put into place for the social media app to promote engagement amongst businesses or public figures. Since Meta has integrated ads on Facebook, it may not be long before Instagram jumps onto the bandwagon.