Instagram has reportedly decided to build an iPad app after a decade and a half as an iPhone-only experience for Apple devices.
The Meta-owned company has long resisted launching a tablet-app for a number of reasons; firstly because the app’s original calling was to shoot, edit and upload pictures and video directly on the device.
Now it appears there’s been a more immediate shift in the company’s strategy, and Instagram is set to come to the best iPad models, according to a report in The Information (via 9to5Mac)
The site wrote: “Instagram is also working on a version of the Instagram app designed for iPads, the current employee said, which could further drive usage of Instagram. Currently, iPad users can download a version of the Instagram app designed for iPhones, which appears zoomed-in on iPads—not a good experience!”
Given tablets generally have inferior cameras and image capture is a secondary purpose for most users, an Instagram app for iPad hasn’t been a priority dating back to the earliest days of independent ownership.
Back in 2021, we got the first rumblings under Meta’s leadership that an Instagram app for iPad was at least desired.
“I spent a bit of a time on an iPad because I was on a flight, but still no iPad app for Instagram,” said Instagram head Adam Mosheri. “It would be nice to do, but there’s a lot to do and only so many people, so it hasn’t made the cut.”
A year later, he wrote: “It’s still just not a big enough group of people to be a priority. Hoping to get to it at some point, but right now we’re very heads down on other things.”
Now it appears the ice is finally breaking at Meta HQ
Instagram is a content consumption app
It made sense in the past, but considering the vast majority of time spent on Instagram is consuming content rather than creating it, why not have an iPad app? It is more frequently an app used for browsing stories, watching Reels longer than a minute, and endlessly scrolling through whatever the algorithm serves up. It would make perfect sense to do so using the iPad’s larger display.
