Instagram launched a devoted iPad utility on Wednesday, putting its short-form video characteristic Reels on the heart of the redesigned interface as mother or father firm Meta intensifies competitors with TikTok.
The app addresses longstanding complaints about Instagram’s iPad expertise, which beforehand required utilizing a scaled-up iPhone model with blurry visuals and lacking options.
The brand new app, accessible globally on units operating iPadOS 15.1 and later, opens on to a Reels feed — a nod to what Instagram calls ‘lean-back leisure’ — with Tales pinned on the high and one-tap entry to messaging.
Reels, which accounts for greater than 20% of time customers spend on Instagram, represents a central pillar in Meta’s technique to spice up engagement throughout its platforms within the aggressive short-form video market.
The iPad app provides a Following tab with a number of viewing choices, together with really useful posts, content material from mutual followers and chronological feeds. Customers can reorder feed choices to prioritize most popular content material.
The interface helps multitasking layouts that present messages and notifications facet by facet, and lets feedback increase with out interrupting video playback.
The app is offered without spending a dime on Apple’s App Retailer. Instagram mentioned an optimized model for Android tablets shall be launched quickly.