Instagram iPad app leaks as head honcho promises fix for abysmal searchability

If you've used Instagram at all, you'll know that searchability is particularly bad, and that would be putting it gently. This is one of the things Instagram hopes to be addressing soon, along with launching a new iPad app and a video editing app to compete with or potentially replace CapCut, depending on how the impending TikTok and ByteDance ban plays out. 

According to Instagram head, Adam Mosseri (speaking on the Build Your Tribe podcast), Instagram is working on updated search functionality in the hopes that it will be able to better compete with TikTok. He admits that searchability on Instagram is a weak point and says that the company is working to improve it. 

"You can imagine, whatever you use Instagram for, it’d be great to be able to find ‘that’ more easily. But also for creators… it should allow content to resurface so that you don’t get all the value in those first 24 or 48 hours."

This isn't the only strategy Instagram will be implementing in order to compete with social media giant, TikTok, and its parent company ByteDance. Instagram has been working on a video editing app, called Edits, for some time, in an effort to compete with the ByteDance-owned CapCut. The app is still in closed beta on both Android and iOS, and it is unclear when the video editor will launch, but it looks like it will pack a number of features, including a non-linear editor, captions, voice-over and audio editing, and fun visual edits, like filters, stickers, text, and overlays. 

At the time of writing, it's unclear whether ByteDance and its subsidiaries, TikTok and CapCut, will be banned in the US, since the ban was meant to take effect in early April, but it was suspended yet again. Until a decision is reached, though, it looks like Instagram is preparing to continue competing with ByteDance.  

Another massive piece of news to emerge recently is that an iPad app for Instagram is in development. Instagram has been available on iOS for nearly 15 years, and despite that, iPad users still have to resort to using a scaled-up version of the app made for iPhones. Now, though, an Instagram employee speaking to , has confirmed that the Meta-owned social media platform is developing an app specifically designed for iPadOS.

While Instagram has long since had a tablet UI for Android, iPad users have been left in the dark,. The new iPad app will likely go hand-in-hand with Edits and provide social media personalities and managers with a more powerful way to manage their accounts, thanks to impressive hardware from devices like the Apple iPad Air M3 (curr. $549 on Amazon).