When Instagram first appeared on October 2010, it was more than just another app; it was a pivotal cultural moment.
The photo-sharing platform, which debuted exclusively on Apple’s iOS, captured the imagination of users with its simple interface, photo filters, and instant social connectivity. It didn’t take long for Instagram to reshape how people shared their lives online, transforming ordinary snapshots into polished, curated glimpses of daily experiences.
The app’s meteoric rise was evident from day one, with tens of thousands of downloads within just hours of launch, and within two years, it had amassed millions of users who embraced the new form of social interaction.
That explosive growth caught the eye of tech giants, and in 2012, Meta (when it was still called Facebook) acquired Instagram for roughly $1 billion. What seemed like a massive price tag at the time for a platform that literally made no money, has since proven to be one of the most lucrative acquisitions in the tech world.
Under Meta’s umbrella, Instagram continued to expand its influence, introducing new features that would come to define modern social media. Yet despite its forward march, there was always a prominent omission in Instagram’s strategy: having a dedicated iPad app.
Now, Instagram finally has a change of heart.
When Apple's iPad debuted in 2010, only months before Instagram, it quickly carved a niche for itself with a larger screen that felt perfect for browsing photos, videos, and media-rich apps. Many developers rushed to optimize their apps for Apple’s tablet, creating dedicated interfaces that made use of its screen real estate.
But Instagram never followed suit.
While Instagram’s iPhone app was a defining app of the smartphone era, and while the platform expanded to Android in 2012, iPad users were always left neglected.
For years, the app on iPad was nothing more than a stretched-out iPhone version, plagued with awkward gaps, too much white space and pixelated layouts, occupied with subpar photo uploads.
This absence frustrated users and nonetheless, baffled the industry. How could one of the most visual apps in the world, owned by one of the wealthiest tech companies ever built, ignore the iPad for so long? Instagram’s chief, Adam Mosseri, often brushed off requests by claiming the company lacked the resources, which literally made no sense.
In 2022, Mosseri even admitted it was a popular request but insisted it wasn’t a priority, arguing that most users accessed Instagram on their phones.
A year later, his reasoning hadn’t changed. But at the same time, Instagram introduced layout improvements for folding Android phones, which meant the experience on some Android tablets was actually superior to Apple’s flagship tablet.
It took 15 long years, and the wait is finally over.
Meta has released a dedicated Instagram app for iPad, optimized for the Apple tablet.
Available globally on the App Store for iPadOS 15.1 and later, the new app isn’t just a scaled-up version of the iPhone interface.
It’s been redesigned to embrace the tablet’s capabilities, offering more space, fewer taps, and a layout that feels natural on a bigger display. Now, when users open Instagram on the iPad, they're greeted directly by Reels, signaling Meta’s push to keep short-form video at the center of the user experience. Stories remain visible at the top, and navigation is streamlined with menu icons aligned along the left side of the screen.
One of the most notable additions is the dedicated Following tab.
This section splits into three columns: 'All,' which shows recommended posts and reels from accounts users follow; 'Friends,' which narrows the feed to accounts that follow them back; and 'Latest,' a reverse-chronological feed that surfaces the most recent posts first.
This marks a nod to Instagram’s early days, when feeds were strictly chronological before the company shifted to algorithmic curation in 2016. The iPad app’s feed options provide more flexibility and user control than ever before.
Messaging also benefits from the larger screen.
Direct Messages now appear in a two-panel layout, showing conversations list on the left and the active chat on the right. Similarly, comments on Reels display alongside the video instead of obscuring it, creating a smoother, more immersive experience. Multi-column layouts extend to other parts of the app as well, making navigation faster and requiring fewer taps compared to the iOS version.
Meta has emphasized that this redesign is about leaning into how people use larger screens today, which is more into lean-back entertainment and easier multitasking.
It’s clear that Instagram for iPad is more than a simple port.
This iPad version of Instagram is a long-overdue acknowledgment of how users want to engage with the platform on tablets.
After years of excuses and delays, the moment has finally arrived. Instagram, once synonymous only with the iPhone, has officially expanded to the iPad, finally embracing those long-suffering users who have waited since 2010.
In other words, the app is not just a new app. It’s validation that their patience has finally paid off.
And in the ongoing battle with TikTok for attention and ad revenue, Meta now has one more way to keep users engaged.