ALBAWABA - Recently, Instagram started testing a brand-new feature called "Ad Breaks," where the users' surfing experience is disrupted by unskippable adverts, that require them to watch for three to five seconds before they can go on to other parts of their feed, sparking anger online.
After social media users started sharing screenshots of the feed change, Instagram confirmed that it was experimenting with unskippable adverts. According to the documentation shown in the Instagram app, the newly introduced ad breaks will feature a countdown meter that prevents users from seeing other content on the app until they watch the ad.
Such unskippable ads are not new in the industry, with other platforms like Youtube including such breaks, however coming into the middle of a much longer video format compared to short clips on Instagram reels feed, as Mashable notes, where users spend much less time in-between content, making the forced ads feel much more disruptive.
Users online are confused and frustrated since Meta has not formally announced the addition of such commercial breaks, with discussion threads emerging on Reddit and X (previously Twitter), where commenters are sharing their experiences and voice their dissatisfaction with social media giant.
“This is gonna piss a lot of people off,” user “Forest-Automatic” commented on a Reddit post discussing the change, with user “Grobinson01” saying they “Closed the app immediately when the ad break popped up and will continue to do so. Thanks Instagram for the handy pop up that reminds me I have something better to be doing.”
Meta description of the new “ad breaks” update inside the app reads “Ad breaks are a new way of seeing ads on Instagram. Sometimes you may need to view an ad before you can keep browsing,” it is still unclear however if this change will spread to all users or become a permanent change in the app.
