An extended-awaited multi-tasking replace pays off (thus far)

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 stunning show and tons of fine apps from the App Retailer for gaming, leisure and lightweight work. The opposite world is one the place the iPad replaces your conventional laptop, letting folks do the intense work that’s been sometimes reserved for a Mac or Home windows PC. iPadOS has too typically served as a hindrance to the latter objective over time, notably because the iPad Professional has gotten more powerful.

The Stage Supervisor multitasking expertise Apple introduced with iPadOS 16 in 2022 was a significant step in direction of making the iPad’s software program appropriate for energy customers — but it surely was slightly buggy at launch and never as versatile as iPad energy customers had been hoping for. The calls to simply put macOS on the iPad grew louder. However this yr, Apple took a different approach: 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’ll be able to 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 It’s a large refinement over the outdated Stage Supervisor expertise and one which I believe will lastly fulfill iPad die-hards who wish to push their tablets to the restrict.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 small print, a fast phrase on betas and stability. As normal, 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, notably with third-party apps, occurred way more on this beta than with iPadOS 18. I’m assured these issues might 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 any case, the ultimate model of iPadOS 26 might be out in just some months.

(Ed. observe: Apple just released the public betas for iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and watchOS 26. This implies, as Nate acknowledged above, you’ll be able to run the preview for your self, if you’re keen to threat probably buggy software program. As normal, we extremely advocate backing up all of your date earlier than operating any beta, and you’ll observe our guide on how to install Apple’s public betas to take action.)

Multitasking

Time for the nitty-gritty. Whenever 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 cut up display screen view with a 3rd app out there in a Slide Over window. The latter possibility is gone now, although you’ll be able to nonetheless simply arrange two or three apps aspect by aspect 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.

Whenever you activate multitasking mode, apps nonetheless open in full display screen first — however you’ll be able to seize any nook of the window to resize it or contact the highest of the app and drag it across the display screen. You 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 standard Residence Display view, however along with your apps tucked to the aspect as a visible cue which you can add one other app to that group. And, as earlier than, you’ll be able to transfer, resize and stack that app window wherever you need.

As I’m penning 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 Residence Display and see each open app in a smaller window, which makes discovering the precise factor I would like quite a bit simpler; I can even simply command-tab by them. Apps could be minimized right 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 every part I’ve open to begin contemporary — however once more, if I reopen these apps, they’ll return to precisely the place I had them arrange earlier than.

I notice it sounds type of foolish to make a giant deal of this, but it surely’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 every part in a single house is much more intuitive. And if you wish to have varied totally different areas with particular apps, you’ll be able to nonetheless activate Stage Supervisor. It’s quite a bit simpler so as to add and take away apps from varied totally different teams than it was once; minimizing a window places it into its personal house which you can add extra apps to (or simply apply it to its personal).

There are a couple of different new elements that make multitasking work in addition to it does. These must be fairly acquainted to Mac customers: The three-button “stoplight” controls and the menu bar. The stoplight buttons substitute the same three-dot window administration system from older variations of iPadOS however are way more intuitive. The purple one closes an app window solely, 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, notably if you wish to have multiple 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 often felt like extra bother than it was price on something however a 13-inch iPad, however these new multitasking options make it straightforward to flip by a bunch of apps and pop into full display screen if I want more room.

The expanded window tiling controls right here additionally make that simpler. In the event you 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 can even seize drag bars to additional regulate how a lot house every app takes up. I actually favored a mode the place three iPhone-sized apps fill the display screen, and when there was one thing I wished to commit 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. In the event you 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 approach to discover extra superior controls for an app, and it additionally retains the varied 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 vastly 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.

All the pieces 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 embrace an improved Recordsdata app, the Preview app that has lengthy been a core a part of macOS, the brand new Liquid Glass design, some probably helpful Apple Intelligence options, a pleasant set of updates to the Messaging app and a brand new Telephone app.

A lot has been stated about Liquid Glass, with tons of prognostication about how Apple was ruining usability and throwing its UI again to 2006 in a blatant Windows Aero ripoff. As normal, the reality is way more nuanced. Nobody accustomed to Apple’s software program might be thrown off by this replace — every part works because it did earlier than, and when you’ll undoubtedly discover some refractive visible components, it’s not the wholesale change that aggrieved social media posters would have you ever imagine. You can make issues look very totally different in the event you, say, go for the brand new clear glass icon look, however you can even 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 had 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.) In all probability the largest useful change is that app controls, toolbars and sidebars float over apps in a brand new, distinct layer slightly than being wholly separate from an app’s content material — however once more, it’s not the type of factor that’ll faze anybody who has been utilizing an iPad or every other Apple system.

Preview isn’t precisely a thriller, but it surely’s a a lot better approach to work with PDFs and pictures than the outdated interface that launched them in a separate Recordsdata window. You’ll be able to nonetheless discover PDFs in Recordsdata simply sufficient, however really coping with the doc in a separate app is best than making Recordsdata pull double obligation.

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 quicker entry to no matter you’re engaged on, and the app record view has resizable columns and collapsible folders, identical to on the Mac. You may as well add emoji and colours to folders for extra visible differentiation (and, let’s be sincere, a little bit extra enjoyable). And for the primary time, you’ll be able to decide particular apps to open totally different file varieties by default — so in the event you’d slightly 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 bought a pleasant redesign with massive contact posters of your latest calls. However what’s most helpful right here is that the FaceTime app not tries to do double-duty with voice calls. A devoted Telephone app handles that now. Assuming you even have an iPhone, you’ll see all of your latest voice calls and voicemails right here and you’ll rapidly place a brand new name by your contact record or utilizing a standard dialer. I’ve at all times favored the concept of having the ability to place calls on units I’m utilizing through 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 keen on 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’ll be able to mark it as recognized even when the contact isn’t in your deal with e book and people messages will find yourself in your predominant 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 predominant 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 units 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 Dwell Translation, I’ll level you to my colleague Mat Smith’s iOS 26 overview. As is often the case, almost each characteristic coming to the iPhone this yr can be coming to the iPad, that means Dwell Translation will arrive on the pill too.

There’s much more right here that I haven’t been capable of get to, like improved background duties that allow you to export a video with out retaining 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 primarily based on my expertise with the latest beta, I’m fairly happy with the place iPadOS 26 is at. The updates to multitasking are so important that I can’t think about going again to an iPad with out them.