As you probably know, Instagram still doesn’t have an iPad app. The platform was born as an iPhone app, and although it’s now on Android and the web, Meta has never bothered to optimize Instagram for the iPad. Unfortunately, those expecting to see an iPadOS version of the app will have to wait longer, as Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri has again said that this is not a priority for him.
Instagram isn’t coming to iPad any time soon
When answering some questions from users on Instagram Stories, Mosseri was asked when Instagram will be available on the iPad with a dedicated app. The executive answered that he’s “not working on it right now.”
In order not to kill expectations completely, Mosseri later said that having an iPad app would be “a good thing to have at some point” but that there are other new features that he considers to be more important. Given the whole situation, it seems increasingly unlikely that Instagram will update its app with a layout dedicated to the iPad.
Last year, Mosseri told YouTuber Marques Brownlee that the number of users the platform has on the iPad is “still just not a big enough group of people to be a priority” and that the team is “very heads down on other things.”
In fact, the iPad has a much smaller user base than the iPhone. For instance, Apple shipped more than 42 million iPhone units during the second quarter of 2023. When it comes to the iPad in the same period, Apple shipped 10 million units, according to IDC data. For some developers, this difference is enough to rule iPadOS out of their plans.
At the same time, it’s not like Meta is a small company without the resources to build an iPad app. Facebook, for example, still has an iPadOS version to this day. And although Instagram makes more sense on a phone because of the cameras, it would be great to have it on the iPad to see the photos and videos on a much larger screen.
The fact that the Instagram team isn’t worried about building an iPad app also raises questions about Threads, Meta’s new microblogging platform. Similar to Instagram, Threads also lacks an iPadOS version, which limits how users interact with the social network.
Back in August, Meta launched a web version of Threads that works on desktops and tablets, but it’s far from working as well as a native app. Interestingly, Instagram has a version for Android tablets. Hopefully, Meta will change its mind about the iPad someday.
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