Official Instagram app for iPad releases, includes fundamental change

iPad users can finally rejoice after years of toil, as Meta has decided to finally make an official Instagram app for iPad. Yes, that is right - no more poorly optimized, stretched Instagram app on iPad.

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The news was announced in a new blog post by Instagram, where the company wrote the new app will be a "redesigned experience" for iPad, which will "reflect how people use bigger screens today." What does that redesign entail? According to Instagram, the iPad app will open on Reels, Instagram's version of the vertical video content popularized by TikTok.

The iPad app won't open on the photo and video feed tab, as it does on every other platform, as Instagram seemingly believes that iPad users are more likely to be using their device to watch videos rather than browse photos.

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The traditional photo and video feed will still be available to users in a separate tab, but the Reels tab will be presented to users when the app is opened. iPad users have been asking for a dedicated Instagram app for many years now, but Meta never built one for several reasons.

There were technical challenges to making sure images looked the same across all devices and loaded quickly despite poor internet connections. Additionally, engineers designed the original Instagram app to load images with the least amount of pixels possible.

All of these technical aspects of the Instagram app meant that when it was used on an iPad, it appeared stretched and poorly optimized. Combine these technical aspects with Meta's perception toward the iPad and it not being a priority device for Instagram optimizations as it isn't the primary device a user owns (most iPad users already own a smartphone), and we have approximately explained why iPad has never received an optimized iPad app until now.