Instagram Is Finally on the IPad, and It’s a Total Mess
The year is 2025, and… Instagram has finally arrived on the iPad. This is quite a surprise, considering that both Instagram and the iPad have been around for 15 years, but it’s been that long since the social network came to tablets. Here’s how to get started with Instagram for iPad, but be warned: it’s a little different than you might expect.
Getting Started with Instagram for iPad
This is the easy part. You just need to open the App Store on your iPad, search for Instagram, and download the app. If you’re reading this on an iPad, you can click this link to go straight to the store page. Once you’ve downloaded the app, sign in with your Instagram account and you’re good to go. The initial setup process is very similar to setting up Instagram on an iPhone. You’ll need to sign in with your credentials, and you’ll see the same pop-ups asking for permissions (notifications and in-app tracking permission to serve personalized ads). You can decline both permissions if you want, and then you can start using the app.
How Instagram for iPad is Different from the iPhone Version
After using the Instagram app for iPad for just one day, I’m honestly quite disappointed with what the company has released. It looks and feels like a pre-beta version, designed with the sole purpose of increasing user engagement rather than providing a usable interface on the iPad’s large screen. The app will likely reach the growth targets that its parent company Meta wants, but I’d like to see the app be as sleek as its iPhone counterpart.
Case in point: The Home tab on the iPad app is different from its counterparts on all other platforms. On iPhone, Android, or the web, tapping the Home icon opens either a feed of posts from people you follow or suggested posts from the app’s algorithm. On iPad, it immediately opens Instagram Reels. You see the stories of people you follow at the top, but underneath that, it immediately opens up to Reels. I expected this behavior when tapping the Reels tab on the iPhone app, but putting it right on the Home tab is a bit much.
Instagram says this is intentional. “On Instagram for iPad, we’ve redesigned the experience to reflect how today’s big screens are used — for relaxed entertainment,” the company said in a blog post announcing the app. That’s a nod to the growing number of people using TVs and other large screens to watch short videos. Clearly, the iPad app was designed to instantly engage you with the Reels algorithm and increase the time you spend on Instagram.
To view your feeds, first click the People icon on the left. This will open your Following feed, which is divided into three tabs: All, Friends, and Latest. The All tab shows content from people you follow and suggested posts, while the Friends tab shows posts your friends have liked or shared. The Latest tab is a chronological feed, and I personally like it.
The buttons for messages, search, notifications, creating new posts/stories/feeds, and going to your profile are still there. They all work the same as in the iPhone app, and are conveniently located on the left panel, making them easy to reach even if you’re holding the iPad with both hands. Otherwise, there’s nothing to indicate that the app was designed with the user in mind.
One of the most annoying things I encounter is the app constantly switching from light mode to dark mode. When I had light mode set in my iPad settings, Instagram would open the Home tab in dark mode and use a dark background when creating new posts. When I tapped on any video in the Following tab, it would expand to full screen and also use a dark background. However, all other tabs would open with a white background. When I turned on dark mode on my iPad, Instagram thankfully followed suit and darkened all backgrounds, but I wish the light mode was more consistent.
I also tried using Instagram in Split View on my iPad, which meant I had Instagram and a second app open at the same time. Split View lets you resize the Instagram window. When you shrink the Instagram window to one-third of the screen, the app changes its layout to look very similar to the iPhone version. Most of the tabs move to the bottom of the screen, and a couple of buttons move to the top (the compose button and the message button). The app worked well in Split View, which is good news for the type of content Instagram is prioritizing right now. Since the app focuses so heavily on vertical videos these days, using it in full-screen mode doesn’t make sense on the iPad. You get giant black bars on either side of your videos, and there’s a lot of dead space that could be put to better use.
Honestly, when I open a post and try to read the comments, the video slides to the left and the comments appear on the right. Other than that, I haven’t found much benefit from using the iPad’s larger display. That’s why I prefer to use Instagram on my iPad in Split View, where I can work with the browser at the same time. That way, if I see something interesting on Instagram, I can quickly search for it in the browser and learn more.
You may get more out of Instagram for iPad, but be prepared for a bit of a learning curve.