Instagram For iPad Is Finally Here: Better 15 Years Late Than Never

Meta this week finally unveiled the official Instagram for iPad app, after years of dodging questions about it, sometimes with silly claims. "We only have so many people" to work on developing the app, Instagram said in February 2020. iPad owners aren't "a big enough group," it said two years later. The reason Meta took so long to deploy an iPad version of Instagram was instead likely its growing rivalry with Apple, a company Mark Zuckerberg has often criticized in recent years. Instagram parent Meta makes tens of billions in revenue from personalized ads on social networks each year. Estimates say Instagram generated $66.9 billion in 2024, or 40% of Meta's revenue. Resources weren't the bottleneck.

There was no Instagram app for iPad before Meta (called Facebook at the time) purchased the photo-sharing app for $1 billion in April 2012, less than two years after the Instagram app launched on the iPhone. Instagram came out on iPhone in October 2010, several months after Steve Jobs unveiled the first iPad. After buying Instagram, Facebook chose not to release an iPad-ready app. In the years that followed, Facebook also made it impossible for other reader apps to bring Instagram-like experiences to the larger screen of the iPad.

Fast-forward to early September 2025, nearly 15 years after Instagram's original launch, and the app is now available to download on the iPad. It's not exactly a surprise. Instagram for iPad has been in development for months. That said, it's better late than never, as Instagram users and creators will be happy to put that big screen to good use.

While its arrival is notable, the iPad app focuses on Reels, the short-form video content Meta copied from TikTok, instead of photo content, which was the original focus of the app. On the bright side, the iPad app also introduces a feature users might like: the new Following tab (more on that later). Instagram said in a blog post that it's "taken the time to design an experience that optimizes your favorite parts of Instagram for a bigger screen." That apparently means opening the app directly to Reels rather than the feed.

In addition to the video at the center of the screen, the iPad app's user interface features a row of Stories at the top of the screen, just like on the iPhone. You'll quickly be able to jump into stories and see content from your follows and friends. On the left is a menu that lets you explore your feed, message friends and family, and upload your own content. The ability to upload content is a feature creators will appreciate; the larger iPad display should make editing photos and videos even easier than on the iPhone.

The extra screen real estate will come in handy when interacting with specific features. Instagram will offer split-screen experiences for instant messaging, catching up with comments on a video or photo, and seeing reactions to your posts.

While some people won't like the focus on Instagram Reels, they might appreciate what Meta did with the new "Following" tab on iPad. This is where you'll want to go to access feeds from friends and other sources you might follow. The Following tab gives you access to three separate feeds: "All," "Friends," and "Latest." Here's what they offer, according to Instagram's post:

• All: Recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow
• Friends: Recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow that follow you back
• Latest: Chronological posts and reels from accounts you follow, with the most recent posts appearing first.

Tap the feed you want to check out, and you'll be able to browse content from that category. There's one more Following-related feature Instagram users will love. You'll be able to choose the order of the three feeds so you can prioritize what you want to see first.

This new tablet design will roll out to Android in the future, though in terms of release timing, Instagram just says that it's "coming soon." Hopefully, it won't be another 15 years until Android tablet users can get the same perks as iPad owners.