Although iOS and iPadOS share a good part of their functions and many applications are available on both computers, the truth is that not all of them are on both. However, there is a way to have exclusive iPhone apps on the iPad , although it has a small drawback. We will tell you all of this in this article.
Download iPhone apps to iPad
The App Store is the only existing official application store for both iPhone and iPad. All applications go through here to be downloaded and in this case there is no exception, although the search on iPad for iPhone apps is slightly different than usual. You must follow these steps to do so:
- Open the App Store on the iPad.
- Go to the “Search” tab at the bottom right.
- Enter the name of the app in the search box at the top.
- Ignore the results that appear and click on “Filters” in the upper left.
- Click on “Compatibility”.
- Now click on “iPhone only”.
Once you do this you will see that the search results have varied, offering in this case the iPhone versions on your iPad. Now you can download them as a normal application.
Limitations and drawbacks
The versions of iPhone applications downloaded to your iPad are literally that, versions optimized for iPhone. They may work on the tablet as normal, but it will look strange on the screen. A series of black stripes will appear on the device and the app will only occupy a part of the screen in dimensions proportional to those of the iPhone.
The reason for this is precisely what we mentioned, that they are versions made for an iPhone and are not visually optimized for the iPad. Although they can be fully functional and obtain a user experience similar to that of iOS, the truth is that it can end up being much more useful to use them on the iPhone than on the tablet.
There are some exclusive iOS applications that it sounds strange not to have them versioned on iPad. In fact some of them could be squeezed to the maximum in these devices, however it is up to their respective developers to create them and nothing can be done if they do not do it. This is the case of Instagram , the popular social network that has an iPhone version on iPad, but not an exclusive version of the tablet adapted one hundred percent to the screen size.
It should be noted that some others like WhatsApp do not appear on the iPad even with all the drawbacks shown, but that is really another story.
And backwards? iPad apps on iPhone
Perhaps the exclusive applications of iPad are less than those of iPhone, however there are. However, unlike the opposite case, it is not possible to have them on the iPhone . The reason for this could be mainly the size of the screens, since it is easier to adapt an iOS app on iPadOS than the other way around, even if it is leaving much of the screen black.