After years of people constantly nudging Instagram about releasing an iPad app, the social network is finally launching one today. This means users will no longer need to use the iPhone app, which is not optimized for larger screens, or Instagram for web on the iPad.
The new app defaults to the Reels screen, allowing you to scroll up and watch short videos on a larger screen.
The iPad app has nearly all the features of the phone app when it comes to consumption. Stories appear at the top of the app, and you can access different options from the left-hand sidebar, like the following feed, DMs, Search, Explore, and notifications.
Instagram’s Feed on iPad has three options: “All” for recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow; “Friends” to look at posts and reels from mutuals; and “Latest” to see posts and reels in chronological order. You can also reorder these feeds according to your preference.
Until now, Instagram on iPad was just a blown-up iOS app, which wasn’t pleasant to look at. The company said that it has now revamped the experience to suit the big screen. For instance, when you are watching a reel, you can look at comments on the side, and when you are in the messages tab, you can open a particular conversation while looking at all the active chats on the left.
While Instagram has existed for nearly 15 years, the company didn’t make an iPad app a priority until now. Instagram head Adam Mosseri said multiple times in the past that the company was in no hurry to develop an iPad version. Earlier this year, The Information reported that Instagram was finally building an iPad app.
This also gave birth to third-party viewers like Retro in the past to make the Instagram experience better for iPad users.
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The new Instagram app for iPad is available for all iPads running iOS 15.1 or later, the company says.
