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Instagram finally launches iPad app after 15 years
Time to get your scrolling dopamine hit on that big screen.
Instagram has finally arrived on iPad. After 15 years of iPad users begging for a native app, Meta has actually done it.
The app dropped today, September 3, 2025, and works on iPads running iPadOS 15.1 or later. “People have asked for this for a while,” Instagram admitted in its announcement.
What took so long?
The iPad launched in 2010. Instagram launched later that year. Yet somehow it took a decade and a half to make a dedicated app work for a bigger screen.
Back in June, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman reported: “I’m told that employees on the Meta Platforms Inc. campus are actively testing Instagram for the iPad and that development work is full steam ahead. I would expect it to be released this year if all goes to plan.”
Instagram chief Adam Mosseri has dodged questions about an iPad app for a while now, but those should ease up a lot now.
What’s new
The new app isn’t just a stretched-out iPhone version. Instagram says it “redesigned the experience to reflect how people use bigger screens today – for lean back entertainment.”
Here’s what’s actually different:
- Starts with Reels instead of your main feed
- New Following tab with All, Friends, and Latest feeds you can reorder
- Side-by-side messaging and notifications layouts
- Expandable comments that don’t cover your video
- Fewer taps to get to what you want
“We wanted to take advantage of the bigger screen to give people more features with fewer taps, while keeping it simple,” Instagram’s announcement post says.
Worth downloading?
If you’ve been using the stretched iPhone app or the web version on your iPad, then you’ll definitely want to try this out. I personally wouldn’t use Instagram on an iPad, but I’m sure most of you feel otherwise.
Instagram also says the proper tablet UI is “coming soon to Android” devices.
The Instagram iPad app is available for free right now on the App Store. Better late than never.
Was Instagram’s 15-year delay on an iPad app a mistake, or smart resource allocation focusing on mobile-first growth? Do you think the new iPad-optimized features will actually change how people use Instagram? Tell us below in the comments, or reach us via Twitter or Facebook.
