Instagram fans hoping for an iPad app may finally get their wish, if a new report is accurate. The Information, citing an internal source, claims the company is developing an app for iPadOS.
The move seems intended to take advantage of the difficulties facing TikTok, one of Instagram’s biggest rivals. Based on its Chinese ownership and national security concerns, the video-sharing app is currently banned in the U.S.
What isn’t clear is why it took a rival app being banned to convince Instagram to start work on something that seems like an obvious win. It’s had long enough to make an iPad app: the first Instagram post was made way back in July 2010 and the iPhone app launched less than three months later. But the company showed little interest in building an app for the iPad, which had debuted earlier that year.
As MacRumors explains, the excuses for this omission have varied over the years. In 2020, Instagram boss Adam Mosseri said the company had “lots to do” and not enough staff to accomplish them. In 2022, he said instead that there were not enough users demanding an iPad app for it to be a priority.
We don’t have access to Instagram’s internal numbers, but it feels like an obvious fit for the iPad’s larger screen. Instagram’s angle when it launched was all about sharing photos, and even though the site has since pivoted, as almost all social networks have, to a more generalised “videos and influencers and trends” approach it remains highly visual. TikTok has an iPad app; Facebook has an iPad app; Snapchat and Pinterest and X have iPad apps. It’s just weird that Instagram doesn’t.
Maybe that will change soon. But we don’t know how soon: The Information’s sources don’t predict a launch timeframe.
