After announcing in October that ads were coming to its free photo-sharing service, Instagram showed off what those ads would look like in a blog post yesterday — and they're pretty much what you'd expect.
The company showed a few sample ads, from the likes of Macy's and Levi's, and they look a lot like normal Instagram posts — except, of course, for the "Sponsored" warning in the upper right. If you're in a hurry, you may mistake these for your friends' pics, especially if the advertisers get good at choosing their images.
As promised, you can also hide the ads by tapping the "..." button in the lower right corner. And tapping the "Sponsored" gets you more information on the brand or product, should you find it interesting.
Several more examples of ads are collected over at TechCrunch in case you want a further taste of what's to come. There's still no hard date on when the ads will appear; the timing remains some time "in the next couple of months." Just keep a sharp eye out for that big blue "Sponsored" so you know when Instagram has officially given in to ads.
Devin Coldewey is a contributing writer for NBC News Digital. His personal website is coldewey.cc.
