After 15 years of waiting, Instagram is now officially available on the iPad in its full glory, and you no longer have to use the iPhone version of the app on your big tablet with empty spaces on all sides.
iPad was launched in the first half of 2010, and in the second half, Instagram made its debut on iPhone (with an Android app coming 2 years later).
Both the iPad and Instagram skyrocketed to great heights in their respective categories, with the former becoming the most popular tablet choice and the latter emerging as the preferred photo-sharing social media platform.
What astounded users all these years was the lack of a dedicated Instagram app for the iPad, which could take full advantage of the big screen for an optimized experience. Unlike WhatsApp (which is now also available on iPad), Instagram didn’t block you from installing the iPhone version of the app on iPad. But the app would open in a small iPhone-sized window, and the experience was lacklustre, as evident from the image below.
Instagram is now designed for the big iPad screen!
After a few months in development, Instagram officially announced the launch of its iPad app on September 3, 2025, with a focus on making it easier to watch reels on a larger screen.
You’ll notice these buttons on the left edge of the new iPadOS-optimized Instagram app in both portrait and landscape orientations:
- Home: It shows Reels and has Stories at the top. Note that it’s always in Dark Mode, providing a black background for watching video clips.
- Following: Use this to catch up on recommended posts and reels from accounts you follow (All) and accounts that also follow you back (Friends). There is also a Latest sub-tab, showing posts and reels from accounts you follow in chronological order, with the most recent ones appearing at the top.
- Direct Messages: Send DMs and make audio and video calls from your big iPad screen.
- Search: View suggested content and search for accounts, posts, and more.
- Notifications: View alerts about new likes, comments, follows, etc.
- New Post: Publish Instagram post, story, reel, or go live from your iPad.
- Profile: Access your profile page, manage Instagram settings, and make changes to your Meta Accounts Center.
I love the new Instagram app for iPad…
While a few people have made fun of the empty space on both sides when watching reels or browsing through the following tabs, I think the design is clean, looks nice, and the empty spaces are there for a purpose: when you tap the comments button, they load up on the right side, and the video itself shifts to the left, taking advantage of the large screen. I just hope Instagram doesn’t start showing sticky ads in the empty space when scrolling through reels!
The remaining tabs, such as Messages, Search, Notifications, and Profile, also make full use of the wide screen and display relevant content there. For instance, if you tap a DM, the conversation opens nicely on the right side of the screen.
Overall, I love the new Instagram app for iPad, and I’m sure you’ll too.
The Instagram app is optimized for iPadOS 26
If you’ve ticked Windowed Apps in iPadOS 26 Settings > Multitasking & Gestures, you can use the new top menu bar to access quick Instagram settings.
Additionally, you can resize the app to make it extremely thin and tall (similar to an iPhone), fill the whole screen, or adjust it to a size in between, as shown in the screenshots below.
Download or update the Instagram app on iPad
If you don’t have the Instagram app on your iPad, download it from the App Store for free to take it for a spin. Just make sure your iPad is running iPadOS 15.1 or later.
And if you already have the iOS app on your iPad, simply install the latest build (version 396.0.0 or later) to upgrade to the iPadOS-optimized version. Updating will retain your existing account login.
Note that since the new iPad Instagram app was just recently rolled out, depending on which part of the world you’re reading this from, you may have to wait a few hours or a couple of days to get this new update.
Also, check out: How to get notifications on Apple Watch when specific accounts post pictures to Instagram