Instagram.com

On its official blog today, Instagram announces its intention to display image and video ads in its news feed. Changes will start rolling out to U.S. users over the next couple of months.

Instagram says U.S. users will start seeing ads appearing in their feed, and the rest of the world will see the same. These ads will be from brands that users don't necessarily follow, and they will be integrated seamlessly into the user experience.

As stated in the official blog post, Instagram is focused on "delivering a small number of beautiful, high-quality photos and videos from a handful of brands that are already great members of the Instagram community."

It can be remembered that Instagram stirred controversy in 2012 regarding its policy change on video and image ownership. This time, the social network is cautious and emphasizes that users "own their photos and videos." They will have control on what sort of ads they want to appear in their feed and will have the option to filter out those they don't want to see.

Instagram promises its users that browsing their news feed will be like flipping through the pages of their favourite magazine. As to how similar the feed will look like to parent company Facebook's remains to be seen.

With these plans all set and ready to launch, users shouldn't be surprised if one day an ad casually shows up next to their friend's throwback selfie.

An update to any web or mobile app always comes with mixed reactions from users, tech pundits and observers. And that while many casually "liked" the post, others dismissed the idea as the beginning of Instagram's demise.

"User experience going down the toilet," a user commented.