I’m not going to beat across the bush: iPadOS 26 and its new multitasking options are a game-changer for Apple’s tablets. Just about ever since Steve Jobs launched the iPad 15 years in the past (!), Apple has tried to straddle two worlds. In a single, the iPad is a super-simple, easy-to-use pill with a beautiful show and tons of excellent apps from the App Retailer for gaming, leisure and light-weight work. The opposite world is one the place the iPad replaces your conventional laptop, letting individuals do the intense work that’s been sometimes reserved for a Mac or Home windows PC. iPadOS has too usually served as a hindrance to the latter objective over time, significantly because the iPad Professional has gotten extra highly effective.
The Stage Supervisor multitasking expertise Apple launched with iPadOS 16 in 2022 was a significant step in direction of making the iPad’s software program appropriate for energy customers — however it was quite buggy at launch and never as versatile as iPad energy customers have been hoping for. The calls to simply put macOS on the iPad grew louder. However this yr, Apple took a unique method: it introduced essential macOS options just like the acquainted “stoplight” window controls, the menu bar on the prime of the display screen and vastly improved window administration instruments to iPadOS 26. The result’s an iPad expertise the place you possibly can simply bounce between a number of windowed apps arrange simply how you want and one the place you go full display screen to focus in your content material. It’s a large refinement over the previous Stage Supervisor expertise and one which I believe will lastly fulfill iPad die-hards who wish to push their tablets to the restrict.
Earlier than diving into the main points, a fast phrase on betas and stability. As typical, Apple’s public betas really feel fairly secure and succesful, however that doesn’t imply you received’t run into weirdness right here and there. App crashes, significantly with third-party apps, occurred much more on this beta than with iPadOS 18. I’m assured these issues can be ironed out as extra builders replace their apps for the brand new OS, however you’ll additionally run into issues like UI inconsistencies and occasional stutters and jerkiness when leaping between apps. As we at all times say, assume onerous about what you’re keen to place up with to strive a beta, even the comparatively secure public beta. In spite of everything, the ultimate model of iPadOS 26 can be out in only a few months.
(Ed. be aware: Apple simply launched the general public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26. This implies, as Nate said above, you possibly can run the preview for your self, if you’re keen to threat doubtlessly buggy software program. As typical, we extremely advocate backing up all of your date earlier than operating any beta, and you may observe our information on how one can set up Apple’s public betas to take action.)
Multitasking
Time for the nitty-gritty. If you replace to iPadOS 26, you’ll be requested if you wish to allow multitasking or have apps run in full display screen mode solely. When Apple says full display screen solely, they imply it. Previous variations of iPadOS supplied both Stage Supervisor or a fundamental, two-app break up display screen view with a 3rd app accessible in a Slide Over window. The latter possibility is gone now, although you possibly can nonetheless simply arrange two or three apps facet by facet with iPadOS 26’s window tiling options. You should use multitasking mode or full display screen solely, with no in between. I believe that’s a wise transfer, as loads of individuals who use an iPad in all probability by no means use these multi-app options, and having a “multitasking on or off” toggle retains issues easy.
If you activate multitasking mode, apps nonetheless open in full display screen first — however you possibly can seize any nook of the window to resize it or contact the highest of the app and drag it across the display screen. You possibly can already do that with Stage Supervisor, so what actually units this new mode aside is the way it interacts with different home windows. Swiping up from the underside of the show reveals the same old House Display view, however together with your apps tucked to the facet as a visible cue which you could add one other app to that group. And, as earlier than, you possibly can transfer, resize and stack that app window wherever you need.
As I’m scripting this, I’ve 9 separate app home windows open on my iPad, and getting round them feels extra Mac-like than ever earlier than. I can swipe up and maintain from the underside of the House Display and see each open app in a smaller window, which makes discovering the precise factor I need loads simpler; I may also simply command-tab via them. Apps will be minimized all the way down to the dock and after I need the app again, it’ll pop open in the identical measurement window and similar placement as earlier than. Swiping up from the underside of the display screen twice minimizes all the pieces I’ve open to begin recent — however once more, if I reopen these apps, they’ll return to precisely the place I had them arrange earlier than.
I understand it sounds sort of foolish to make an enormous deal of this, however it’s onerous to overstate how a lot this improves the iPad multitasking expertise. With Stage Supervisor, I used to be by no means fairly positive the place an app would open or if it could be full display screen or windowed. It may be helpful for organising a number of teams of apps, however including and eradicating apps from that view was not terribly intuitive. Simply opening all the pieces in a single area is much more intuitive. And if you wish to have numerous completely different areas with particular apps, you possibly can nonetheless activate Stage Supervisor. It’s loads simpler so as to add and take away apps from numerous completely different teams than it was; minimizing a window places it into its personal area which you could add extra apps to (or simply apply it to its personal).
There are just a few different new elements that make multitasking work in addition to it does. These needs to be fairly acquainted to Mac customers: The three-button “stoplight” controls and the menu bar. The stoplight buttons change an identical three-dot window administration system from older variations of iPadOS however are much more intuitive. The crimson one closes an app window fully, the inexperienced one makes a window full display screen after which yellow one minimizes it to the dock. These controls are essential to creating iPadOS 26 really feel extra versatile and fluid than ever earlier than, significantly if you wish to have a couple of window of a single app open. I’ve additionally discovered them to be essential when working with a number of apps on a smaller show, like on the 11-inch iPad Professional. Stage Supervisor normally felt like extra hassle than it was value on something however a 13-inch iPad, however these new multitasking options make it straightforward to flip via a bunch of apps and pop into full display screen if I would like extra space.
The expanded window tiling controls right here additionally make that simpler. If you happen to press and maintain the stoplight buttons, you’ll get extra choices to resize apps to take up 1 / 4, third or half the display screen; you too can seize drag bars to additional regulate how a lot area every app takes up. I actually preferred a mode the place three iPhone-sized apps fill the display screen, and when there was one thing I wished to dedicate extra focus to, I simply hit its inexperienced button and went full display screen.
The menu bar, in the meantime, is fairly straightforward to elucidate. If you happen to swipe down from the highest of the display screen (or transfer your trackpad cursor as much as the highest) you’ll see acquainted menus like File, Edit, Window and so forth. It’s a helpful technique to discover extra superior controls for an app, and it additionally retains the assorted toolbars in apps from getting too overloaded with choices.
Lengthy story brief, this all provides as much as a wildly improved iPad expertise. It doesn’t compromise the single-screen, centered mode that the iPad has at all times been recognized for, and it enormously improves working throughout a number of home windows and apps. And in contrast to Stage Supervisor, which was restricted to M-series iPads, these new multitasking options will work on any iPad that may run iPadOS 26, together with the bottom A16 iPad and the iPad mini.
Every little thing else
If this was the one change to iPadOS Apple made this yr, it could already be a worthwhile improve, however there are a bunch of different enhancements coming this fall. These embody an improved Recordsdata app, the Preview app that has lengthy been a core a part of macOS, the brand new Liquid Glass design, some doubtlessly helpful Apple Intelligence options, a pleasant set of updates to the Messaging app and a brand new Cellphone app.
A lot has been mentioned about Liquid Glass, with tons of prognostication about how Apple was ruining usability and throwing its UI again to 2006 in a blatant Home windows Aero ripoff. As typical, the reality is way more nuanced. Nobody conversant in Apple’s software program can be thrown off by this replace — all the pieces works because it did earlier than, and whilst you’ll positively discover some refractive visible parts, it’s not the wholesale change that aggrieved social media posters would have you ever consider. You can make issues look very completely different when you, say, go for the brand new clear glass icon look, however you too can go away the usual colourful iOS icons in place.
Over the course of the developer betas Apple has launched since WWDC, the corporate has responded to suggestions and lowered among the transparency results that have been current within the first model of Liquid Glass — because it seems, submitting suggestions throughout a beta works! (Curiously, they bumped among the transparency again up within the fourth developer beta, proper after turning it down in beta 3. That is nonetheless a piece in progress.) Most likely the most important practical change is that app controls, toolbars and sidebars float over apps in a brand new, distinct layer quite than being wholly separate from an app’s content material — however once more, it’s not the sort of factor that’ll faze anybody who has been utilizing an iPad or another Apple system.
Preview isn’t precisely a thriller, however it’s a a lot better technique to work with PDFs and pictures than the previous interface that launched them in a separate Recordsdata window. You’ll be able to nonetheless discover PDFs in Recordsdata simply sufficient, however truly coping with the doc in a separate app is healthier than making Recordsdata pull double responsibility.
Talking of Recordsdata, it has much more in widespread with the Mac Finder than earlier than. Now you can put particular folders within the dock for sooner entry to no matter you’re engaged on, and the app listing view has resizable columns and collapsible folders, similar to on the Mac. You can even add emoji and colours to folders for extra visible differentiation (and, let’s be trustworthy, slightly extra enjoyable). And for the primary time, you possibly can choose particular apps to open completely different file varieties by default — so when you’d quite have PNG photos open in Photomator than Preview, go nuts.
There are additionally main updates to the communication expertise throughout the board in iPadOS 26. The FaceTime app acquired a pleasant redesign with massive contact posters of your current calls. However what’s most helpful right here is that the FaceTime app not tries to do double-duty with voice calls. A devoted Cellphone app handles that now. Assuming you even have an iPhone, you’ll see all of your current voice calls and voicemails right here and you may rapidly place a brand new name via your contact listing or utilizing a standard dialer. I’ve at all times preferred the thought of having the ability to place calls on gadgets I’m utilizing in the course of the work day like my Mac or iPad, and this makes it far simpler.
Messages is getting some enjoyable visible enhancements like backgrounds in your conversations, however the factor I’m most interested by is message filtering. The app now identifies unknown senders and places these messages in a separate folder, and there’s additionally a brand new spam folder the place it drops messages that Apple strongly believes are spam.
If a message will get filtered into unknown senders or spam, you possibly can mark it as recognized even when the contact isn’t in your handle guide and people messages will find yourself in your major view by default. The system additionally makes an attempt to acknowledge when a message from an unknown sender is well timed and must be delivered to your major inbox — one thing like a supply individual saying they’re close by or different pressing content material like a two-factor authentication code. This feels primarily like a phone-first characteristic; I get messages on my iPad, however haven’t seen a lot get filtered on to spam or unknown callers but. As soon as all my gadgets are operating Apple’s newest software program, we’ll see how that goes, however I’m nonetheless very enthusiastic about any characteristic that’ll assist fight the deluge of spam messages that plague my inbox.
For extra particulars on the up to date communications expertise and different new options just like the Apple Intelligence-powered Stay Translation, I’ll level you to my colleague Mat Smith’s iOS 26 overview. As is normally the case, almost each characteristic coming to the iPhone this yr can also be coming to the iPad, that means Stay Translation will arrive on the pill too.
There’s much more right here that I haven’t been in a position to get to, like improved background duties that allow you to export a video with out conserving the app in focus, updates to Genmoji and Picture Playground, the Journal app lastly coming to iPad, Apple Intelligence-powered Shortcuts updates and way more. I’ll be persevering with to take a look at how issues change between now and the ultimate launch this fall, however even based mostly on my expertise with the current beta, I’m fairly happy with the place iPadOS 26 is at. The updates to multitasking are so vital that I can’t think about going again to an iPad with out them.