Life

How To Skip Ads In Instagram Stories

by Lily Feinn

With as many as 150 million daily users, Instagram Stories’ fanbase is growing faster than you can say “Valencia filter.” But now that ads between these wonderful little social media bites are on the horizon, are you wondering how to skip ads in Instagram Stories? I don't blame you; I am, too. There's good news for 'grammers, though: According to TechCrunch, ads that play in Stories will be incredibly easy to pass over. In fact, you can skip them with a simple swipe of your finger. (Bustle has reached out to Instagram for comment but received no response by press time.)

Since hitting our screens in August, Instagram Stories have become a popular way to share casual, ephemeral, and humorous content. The fact that the Stories are displayed across the top of the screen separate from the normal feed give them a more relaxed vibe; what's more, they disappear after 24 hours by nature, adding to their appeal. Now, according to Instagram's business blog, Story ads will roll out globally over the next few weeks. So prepare to see either a five-second photo or 15-second video advertisement pop up periodically as you cycle through multiple friends' Stories.

According to an informative video by TechCrunch, it will look a little something like this:

All paid content will be marked as "Sponsored," so if sponsored Stories aren't how you roll, you can be ready to skip the very second they start playing. Instagram is testing this ad format with some 30 partners; worth noting, though, is that they won't be clickable (at least at first), meaning you won't be able to open advertiser's websites from within the Instagram Story. That's not to say you won't be able to do that eventually... but for now, you can't. Sorry.

Like Snapchat's ads, when Stories advances to the next video, occasionally an ad will start seamlessly playing between the videos. To skip, merely swipe the ad to the side, just as you would to skip to the next non-sponsored video within Stories.

Instagram hopes that in time the ads will integrate to become part of the overall experience. “We’ll watch it closely, but I think we’ll introduce it and over time it will be expected just like on home feed — you see the sponsored logo and know ads are just a part of the experience,” Mr. Quarles, the Vice President of Instagram Business, told the New York Times. “This is going to be another great part of the experience, and I do think you’ll hear people say, ‘I discovered this from this business because of this Story.’”

If you want to enjoy commercials all together? Well, the only answer might be to stay off the Internet all together. But I'd argue that an ad here or there is a small price to pay for a literally infinite array of information. Just saying.