Instagram finally gets the update we've been waiting years for – and that's no joke

We're not sure you're ready for this news, but Instagram has finally launched a native version of its app on Apple's iPad.

Despite the social media platform arriving in 2010, six months after the first iPad hit stores, there hasn't been a tablet-optimised version of Instagram available in the years that followed. Until now, that is.

As announced on the Instagram blog (via Engadget), the Instagram app for iPad is now available and as you would hope, it has a couple of key differences to the iPhone version. They are quite different platforms after all, and given it's taken so many years to appear, you would hope for some redesigned elements.

How is Instagram different on iPad?

The Instagram iPad app opens straight into a feed of Reels rather than focusing on photo posts like the iPhone version.

You can also organise posts and Reels into a chronological list so you can see the most recent posts first. Those of you who have been using the likes of Instagram for the last 15 years will likely remember that's how posts used to be presented before algorithms came into play to highlight the posts they think we want to see.

Elsewhere, the Instagram for iPad app takes advantage of the iPad's larger screen, as you would expect. You'll see comments on Reels alongside the videos themselves, while the direct messages section will include both your DM inbox and the chat you're in alongside each other.

We did know the Instagram app for iPad was coming, but it's still great to see it finally appear. Especially given that Instagram's head Adam Mosseri previously said the iPad market wasn't large enough to fast track a native app.

As highlighted by Engadget, Mosseri posted on X a couple of years ago that "it's still just not a big enough group of people to be a priority", adding that the company was "hoping to get to it at some point, but right now we're very heads down on other things".

Thankfully, that "some point" has finally come.