Instagram for iPad is here: Oh, that works?
For years, users have been annoyed that Meta has not given its image and video network its own Apple tablet version. Now the wait is over.
Instagram on the iPad: Also finally developed in response to TikTok.
(Image: Meta)
After years of postponements and delays, Meta, formerly Facebook, has taken pity: Instagram has been officially available in a version adapted for the iPad for the first time since Wednesday evening. The photo and video network, which has had to fight off increasing competition from the Chinese service TikTok in recent years, can now also be used properly on the Apple tablet. Previously, many users had switched to the browser version.
"At some point" is now
Instagram was acquired by Meta in 2012, when the iPad had already been on the market for around two years. Initially, there was no dedicated Facebook app for the Apple tablet, but this changed in 2011. In June, it was last announced that Instagram was being "actively tested" on iPads – without specifying a release date. In spring 2022, it was still said that the iPad was "not a priority" for the service, according to the head of the Meta department, Adam Mosseri. He hopes to get around to it "at some point". That "someday" is now.
Instagram for the iPad is regularly available in Apple's App Store. The service is primarily geared towards short videos – called "reels" in Instagram slang –: because, claims Meta, "the exchange of entertaining content today takes place largely via reels". Instagram has now been "redesigned for larger screens to provide users with an optimal entertainment experience", the company writes.
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More space and video focus
When you open the application, you are taken directly to the reels, not to the photos that once made Instagram great, but which are missing from TikTok. You can also quickly access the stories, i.e. the combination of videos, photos and interactive elements, which disappear again by default. There is also a "Followed" tab that shows the posts of people whose followers you are. Only those who switch to "Most recent" (for chronological display) are not subject to the meta algorithm. "All" and "Friends" are fed by this algorithm. "All" contains content from all accounts that you follow, "Friends" only those that follow you back.
Otherwise, there are various familiar standard functions such as messages and notifications, which are displayed in a double tab layout. According to Meta, this is "now even more convenient to use". In practice, however, this leaves a lot of white space if Instagram is used in landscape format, as Meta apparently intends. Instagram is free of charge. Meta sells verification for 16.99 euros as an in-app purchase. The controversial option of switching off tracking for a lot of money is apparently not yet available here.
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