You've probably looked at Instagram's sponsored content and just assumed it was a necessary evil. After all, it's easy enough to scroll past ads to get to pics of your pals' pups and those photos from your cousins' holiday to Greece. And hey, sometimes those ads look great. Who hasn't been tricked by a glam ad from a fashion brand and "accidentally" double-tapped? But we're letting you in on a little secret: What if we told you there is a way to banish those pesky posts from your feed forever? It's not a fantasy. In fact, it's pretty easy.
According to Mashable, it just takes a few taps, and it works on both Apple and Android operating systems. You may be familiar with Instagram's "reporting" tool. It's the three little dots that are on the right side of your feed, beside the usernames. That's your key to ad freedom.
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First, find an ad. Then, click on the three dots to reveal a menu of why you don't want to see the ad. You've got a few choices: Either the ad's not relevant or you've seen it too often or it's inappropriate. Here's the trick: If you tell Instagram that the ad is inappropriate (if you do it a few times, that is — probably the only time you've ever scrolled through looking for an ad on Insta), you'll be set.
Mashable reports that the simple trick is all it takes to remove ads from your feed. The site's reporters say that after reporting ads, they scrolled over 200 posts without seeing any — that's right: zero sponsored content. This also works for the ads you see between posts on Instagram stories.
It's a pretty sneaky trick, but if you've been avoiding Instagram because of ad bombardment, hopefully the platform will be happy to have you back.