The iPad may be the world’s most popular tablet, but there’s no official Instagram app available for it — and Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri says it’s because the photo- and video-sharing social network is just too busy to make one.
As reported by Verge editor Chris Welch, Mosseri said that “we only have so many people, and lots to do. … It hasn’t bubbled up as the next best thing to do yet.”
The lack of an official Insta app for iPad has been commented on for years. That’s despite the fact that Instagram is consistently one of the most downloaded iPhone apps in the US. This is a shame since the photo-heavy focus of Insta would look great on the larger display of an iPad.
He also said Instagram “would like to build an iPad app.”
“But we only have so many people, and lots to do, and it hasn’t bubbled up as the next best thing to do yet.”
The iPad is 10 years old. Maybe by the time it’s 20, then?
— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) February 15, 2020
There are workarounds such as downloading the iPhone Instagram app on your iPad. However, this is far from perfect. It lets you either use a scaled-up double-sized window or a smaller iPhone-sized window in the middle of your iPad. Neither of these is great, and other features such as landscape mode do not work.
Instagram also made changes to their API which hit many makers of third-party Instagram apps. One alternative is to use the web app, although this does not have the ease or functionality of a dedicated app.
Instagram has ignored the iPad
Ultimately, it’s crazy that there still isn’t an official Insta app available. Even if the majority of users are served by their smartphones, the iPad still represents a very poplar platform currently not being served by the social network. Even at 10 years old, the iPad still gets confusingly, but consistently, ignored by many developers.
Would you like to see an Instagram app on iPad? What’s your personal workaround to the lack of an existing official one? Let us know your thoughts on the comments below.