After 15 years, Instagram has concluded that the iPad audience is large enough to warrant a native app. The dedicated app for Appleâs iPad has finally rolled out, ending more than a decade of speculation and repeated user requests. The rollout, which began on September 3, provides iPad owners with access to a redesigned version of the platform tailored for larger screens and optimized for video consumption.
For users, the iPad app eliminates the need to rely on stretched mobile layouts or third-party viewers. It delivers most of the features of the mobile app in a form designed to take advantage of the iPadâs display. For Meta, the launch is both a response to long-standing customer frustration and a move to lock in more video consumption on its own terms.
Since the iPadâs debut in 2010, Instagram users have relied either on an enlarged iPhone version of the app or the web browser experience. Both approaches were widely criticized for poor usability and limited functionality. For years, executives at Instagram maintained that demand for a tablet app was too small to justify investment. Instagram chief Adam Mosseri had repeatedly dismissed the possibility, citing the bringing the social media app to iPad was not the company’s priority. That stance has now shifted, and the reason is obvious – there are more than two billion active users of the social media platform, and Instagram now wants to (finally) cash in on the previously-untouched iPad user base. And with short-form video becoming the centerpiece of the platform, Meta has introduced an iPadOS app designed specifically around Reels.
Unlike the iPhone version, the iPad app opens directly into Reels, Metaâs TikTok competitor. The larger display also allows for new layouts, such as comments appearing beside a reel instead of covering the video, and a two-panel view in direct messages that displays both conversation threads and active chats simultaneously. Stories remain accessible at the top of the interface, while other navigation optionsâincluding Search, Explore, notifications, and messagesâare arranged along a sidebar on the left.
The iPad release also revives a chronological feed, something long requested by users. Within the âFollowingâ tab, content is split into three categories – All (which shows the recommended posts and reels from accounts followed by the users), Friends (which shows the content from accounts followed by users who follow them back), and Latest (which comes with a chronological feed showing the most recent posts from followed accounts), and users can customize the order of these feeds to prioritize what matters most to them.
Beyond layout changes, the app has been rebuilt with multi-column views in mind. Notifications, messaging, and browsing require fewer taps compared with the iPhone version. Instagram says the redesign reflects how people engage with tablets, describing the iPad as a âlean-back entertainmentâ device rather than a primary communication tool. The app is available for all iPads running iPadOS 15.1 or later and is free to download from the App Store. With iPad sales now rebounding (Apple is expected to generate more than $28 billion in iPad revenue this fiscal year), Meta appears to have reconsidered the opportunity. The app also complements WhatsAppâs arrival on iPad earlier this year, another long-promised Meta project.
The Tech Portal is published by Blue Box Media Private Limited. Our investors have no influence over our reporting. Read our full Ownership and Funding Disclosure â
