Instagram does not have a dedicated app for iPad, and is only available on mobile and the web, currently. And it is likely to stay that way for some time.
Instagram’s head Adam Mosseri confirmed in a conversation on Twitter that, although the company gets lots of requests to develop an Instagram app for iPad, it has not considered the option because of a low number of iPad users.
Instagram does not have resources to develop an iPad app for a few users only
A popular YouTuber, Marques Brownlee, commented that even in 2022 there is no news of an Instagram for iPad. And Mosseri responded with contradicting explanations.
Yup, we get this one a lot. 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.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 27, 2022
Starting with acknowledging that the company receives “a lot” of requests for a dedicated iPad app, Mosseri said that they are engaged in other projects and do not have to bandwidth to work on an app for iPad.
As the conversation continues, Mosseri further elaborated that they are working on giving people what they want features like “supporting dark mode, scheduled posts, an iPad app, deleting one photo from a carousel, etc.”
Yeah, there's something there. I call these "finally features." Things like supporting dark mode, scheduled posts, an iPad app, deleting one photo from a carousel, etc.
— Adam Mosseri (@mosseri) February 27, 2022
And the conversation ended with Mosseri saying that adding support for another platform like iPadOS will increase its operating cost which Instagram can not financially afford at the moment.
Ya'll do transparency better than almost anyone else, love that. I'll keep holding my breath for that rich tablet experience someday!
— Marques Brownlee (@MKBHD) February 27, 2022
The new argument is similar to the reasons Mosseri has been giving for the past two years. In 2020 and 2021, he said an Instagram app for iPad “would be nice to do,” but the company has “a lot to do and only so many people, so it hasn’t made the cut.”
Canalys reported that in Q3, 2021, Apple dominated the tablets market with a 33% year-on-year growth while the other top five vendors recorded double-digit declines. For Q1, 2022, Canalys reported that Apple shipped over 51 million iPads in 2021. Thus, whatever may be Instagram’s reasons for not developing an iPad app, it can not be the low number of iPad users.
