Why isn’t there an Instagram app for iPad?

When you actually think about it, the fact that there isn’t a dedicated Instagram app for iPad is weird. It’s one of the most popular social networks around, with over two billion monthly users. The app is readily available on smartphones of all shapes and sizes and is even accessible via the web, albeit in a simplified format. 

But, if you open the app on an iPad, you’ll essentially get a blown-up version of the iPhone app – it’s not even full-screen. 

And it’s not as if the company that owns Instagram, Meta, is short on cash and unable to afford a dedicated development team for an Instagram app for iPad. The company reported $42.32 billion in revenue for the first quarter of 2025, after all.  

What’s even stranger is that the Instagram app is already optimised for big-screen tablets – Android tablets, that is. 

Open Instagram on a OnePlus Pad 2 or Samsung Galaxy Tab S10 Ultra, and you’ll see what I mean. You get a dedicated tablet interface with your Home feed, Search, Notifications, and other icons all available on the left-hand side of the app, closer to where your hands are when holding a tablet in a horizontal aspect ratio. 

It also tweaks the aspect ratio of the content displayed, both in the feed and in stories, to fit on the tablet screen without cropping. 

Essentially, it’s the Instagram app that iPad owners want, and have been asking for since the first iPad was released back in 2010. So, why isn’t it available? 

Well, it could finally be in the works

It turns out that Instagram boss Adam Mosseri has addressed the lack of an iPad on several occasions.

Back in 2022, Mosseri replied to a tweet from YouTuber Marques Brownlee (aka MKBHD) about the lack of an Instagram app for iPad. “We get this one a lot,” Mosseri explained. “It’s still just not a big enough group of people to be a priority. Hoping to get to it at some point, but right now we’re very heads down on other things.”

He said something similar in 2023, explaining that “it’s a good thing to do at some point. But we have only so many people working at Instagram,” and, as a result, “it’s not quite making the cut.”

However, two years later, it seems like the tide might finally be turning for the fabled Instagram for iPad app – not least because the long-awaited WhatsApp app has finally made its iPad debut.

The rumour comes from The Information, claiming that Meta is finally head-down on developing a dedicated iPad app.

Why? According to the publication, it largely comes down to the uncertain legal status of TikTok amid the divest-or-ban law that saw the app temporarily blocked in the US earlier this year, before Trump threw the social network a lifeline. 

Instagram wants to be in a position to hoover up all those users if TikTok does go dark permanently in the US, and while TikTok has a full-fat iPad app, that’s a massive omission from Instagram’s current offering. 

So, it sounds like we’ll be seeing a proper Instagram for iPad app sometime in the future – but given it took three years of development to get the WhatsApp app ready, I’m not holding my breath for a 2025 release here.