Instagram Launches Native iPad App With Reels-First Experience

Instagram finally ships a native iPad app

After years of user requests and a string of third-party workarounds, Instagram is releasing a native iPad app. The move replaces the old blown-up iPhone interface and the web experience with a layout redesigned for larger screens and more productive multitasking.

At launch the app defaults to the Reels view, letting users scroll vertically through short videos on a bigger canvas. Consumption features match the phone app in scope, but Instagram has rearranged and expanded how they appear: Stories sit across the top, and a left-hand sidebar surfaces Following, DMs, Search, Explore and notifications.

The Feed now offers three modes — All, Friends, and Latest — and you can reorder those options to match how you want content surfaced. There are thoughtful big-screen touches: comments can sit beside a playing Reel, and the messages tab supports a two-column view so you can read a conversation while scanning active chats.

This release closes a long-standing gap. Instagram head Adam Mosseri previously said an iPad app wasn’t a priority, and until now iPad users relied on stretched phone apps or third-party viewers like Retro. The native app is available on iPads running iOS 15.1 or later.

Why this matters

Bigger screens change behavior. Reels on an iPad feel more like lean-back TV viewing than thumb-scrolling on a phone. For creators and brands, that means existing vertical formats may need tweaks: composition, pacing and lower-thirds read sizes all behave differently on a 10-inch panel compared with a 6-inch phone.

For community teams and social managers, split views make multitasking easier. Moderation workflows, DM response times and live comment monitoring can all improve when you can watch a Reel while scanning messages or comments in parallel. Advertisers may also see different creative performance signals on a larger canvas.

Practical steps for teams

• Run creative audits specifically on iPad screen sizes to check framing, legibility and pacing.
• A/B test feed ordering and Reels-first placements to measure watch-time and click-through differences.
• Adjust moderation and community workflows to leverage split-view messaging and side-by-side comment monitoring.
• Update creative briefs and ad specs to account for larger preview sizes and different attention patterns.

What QuarkyByte sees next

This is a practical, not purely cosmetic, launch. Small interface changes — like a persistent sidebar and adjacent comments — can shift engagement metrics. Organizations that treat the iPad as a distinct channel (not just a stretched phone) will capture early advantages in watch-time, messaging response and ad performance.

QuarkyByte’s approach is to test, measure and iterate: baseline current phone performance, run targeted iPad creative experiments, and instrument feeds and DMs to see where behavior diverges. For product teams, that means quick UX experiments. For brands and publishers, it means a creative checklist and new measurement slices.

If you run social campaigns or manage creator programs, consider the iPad launch a nudge to re-evaluate formats and workflows. The device gap that forced stopgap solutions is closing — and that’s an opportunity to optimize for richer, more deliberate content consumption.