Instagram CEO Adam Mosseri recently revealed the answer to a question that many IG users have been asking for years. No, not “is the chronological feed coming back” (he already answered that one a while back). He explained why Instagram, after all these years, still doesn’t have a proper iPad app.
The revelation was part of a Q&A on Mosseri’s Instagram account and spotted by The Verge Editor Chris Welch:
He also said Instagram “would like to build an iPad app.”
“But we only have so many people, and lots to do, and it hasn’t bubbled up as the next best thing to do yet.”
The iPad is 10 years old. Maybe by the time it’s 20, then?
— Chris Welch (@chriswelch) February 15, 2020
There were actually two pieces of fascinating information. First, it turns out that a “small group” of IG users never see any advertisements in order to “make sure we understand the effect of that.” Let us know in the comments if you’re one of this insanely lucky few.
The second, and more controversial, response was Mosseri’s answer to the question of why IG doesn’t have an iPad app. It’s a glaring omission for one of the largest social networks in the world, but despite the recent report that Instagram raked in a whopping $20 billion in ad revenue for parent company Facebook in 2019, Moserri blamed a lack of resources for why they haven’t made an iPad app.
According to Welch, Mosseri said Instagram would like to make an iPad version, but “we only have so many people, and lots to do, and it hasn’t bubbled up as the next best thing to do yet.”
Mosseri has said in the past that one of the hardest things about his job is “figuring out what good ideas to say ‘no’ to in the name of doing fewer things better.” But as the iPad’s 10th anniversary approaches, the consensus among users seems to be that a lack of resources is a pretty lame excuse coming from such a big company:
LMAO, meanwhile small teams have universal apps without issue, often at launch. GTFO @instagram ???
— Kirk Douglas (@KirkDouglasSD) February 17, 2020
Facebook-owned company can’t just go hire a few more people to developer an iPad app? ??
— Tim Baker ? (@IAmTimBaker) February 16, 2020
Can’t we just get a GoFundMe going for them? Seems like those poor people are strapped for money.
— Farlin Paulino Sanz (@FarBlaze) February 16, 2020
Solo developers can maintain apps on iPhone, iPad, Android, Mac, and Windows with no trouble. And I’m talking about apps that do a lot more than Instagram. #idontthinkso, #bs,
— David Weissman (@deweissman) February 17, 2020
While Mosseri has every right as the CEO to set priorities, the commenters above have a point: smaller apps, with smaller teams, and much smaller budgets manage to maintain more apps.
It seems far more likely that an iPad app simply doesn’t make financial sense—and is therefore never going to be “the next best thing to do”—in the same way that we don’t ever expect Instagram to add an upload function to the Web app.
(via DPReview)
