It has become necessary for some users to take "ad breaks" in between posts.
Instagram is experimenting with "ad breaks," which require you to pause your scrolling and spend a moment seeing an advertisement. Ad breaks are being tested, as Instagram spokesman Matthew Tye confirmed to The Verge after many X and Reddit users reported seeing the feature. In the event that any official product changes arise from this test, Instagram will "offer updates," according to Tye.
As one Redditor perused through posts and stories, they noticed the function. Instagram stopped users from scrolling any farther until they clicked on an advertisement after a set length of time. Instagram offers a "ad break" icon along with a countdown meter that indicates how long it will be until you can resume scrolling, as seen in the screenshot.
Instagram displayed the phrase, "Ad breaks are a new way to watch adverts on Instagram," when the user tapped the symbol to learn more about the function. You might occasionally have to watch an advertisement before continuing to browse.
Whether it is your home feed or Reels, Instagram already intersperses sponsored posts and advertisements with the content you are browsing through. However, interspersing inaccessible text with posts elevates the issue and appears to be quite bothersome. According to Tye, "We are continually experimenting formats that can produce value for advertising."
YouTube also displays unskippable advertisements before and during videos, similar to Instagram. Last year, it even added 30-second, unskippable ads to its TV app. You can still swipe right past the advertisements that are inserted by TikTok and YouTube in between their shortform videos.