Instagram continues focus on the Shop tab, starts displaying ads in it

As noted by Engaget, Instagram, which is now owned by Facebook, has introduced ads in its Shop tab, which itself was quite a controversial addition, first launched in late 2020.

We recently discussed how Instagram arguably keeps getting worse under Facebook, with the app's focus gradually being moved away from posting photos and onto shopping and TikTok-like short form video.

The new ads are going to have a "sponsored" tag, letting you know that the account who posted said content paid Facebook in order to boost its viewability. This is similar to how sponsored posts in the Home tab also have a "sponsored" tag under the name of the accounts that published them.

The Shop tab itself remains the same – essentially an aggregator of posts by Instagram Shops accounts, which, as can be expected, aims to show you ads based on your search history and interests.

Clicking an item in the Shop tab, sponsored or not, will show you the shop, name of the item, price, and a link to the Shop's actual website to buy the item from. Clicking items will also show you more items from that shop and the option to forward or save them into a wishlist.

In related news, Instagram recently also added “Audio” to its search options, letting users search for songs within the app, with the results showing Reels that use them as background music. In July, the social network app also tested displaying a banner reminding subscribers to use Facebook, and was also in the works for an iPhone and iPad home screen widget that would let users switch Instagram accounts faster and easier.