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 beautiful show and tons of fine apps from the App Retailer for gaming, leisure and light-weight work. The opposite world is one the place the iPad replaces your conventional pc, letting individuals 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, significantly 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 — however it was fairly 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 12 months, Apple took a different approach: it introduced essential macOS options just like the acquainted “stoplight” window controls, the menu bar on the high of the display and vastly improved window administration instruments to iPadOS 26. The result’s an iPad expertise the place you’ll be able to simply leap between a number of windowed apps arrange simply how you want and one the place you go full display to focus in your content material. It’s a large refinement over the previous Stage Supervisor expertise and one which I feel 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 regular, Apple’s public betas really feel fairly secure and succesful, however that doesn’t imply you gained’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 will probably 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 all the time say, assume arduous about what you’re keen to place up with to attempt a beta, even the comparatively secure public beta. In spite of everything, the ultimate model of iPadOS 26 will probably be out in only a few months.

Multitasking

Time for the nitty-gritty. While you replace to iPadOS 26, you’ll be requested if you wish to allow multitasking or have apps run in full display mode solely. When Apple says full display solely, they imply it. Previous variations of iPadOS supplied both Stage Supervisor or a fundamental, two-app cut up display view with a 3rd app out there in a Slide Over window. The latter choice 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 utilize multitasking mode or full display solely, with no in between. I feel that’s a sensible 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.

While you activate multitasking mode, apps nonetheless open in full display 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. 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 same old House Display view, however together with your apps tucked to the aspect as a visible cue which you could 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 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 would like loads simpler; I can even simply command-tab by way of them. Apps may 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 twice minimizes every part I’ve open to start out 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 a giant deal of this, however it’s arduous to overstate how a lot this improves the iPad multitasking expertise. With Stage Supervisor, I used to be by no means fairly certain the place an app would open or if it will be full display 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 completely different areas with particular apps, you’ll be able to nonetheless activate Stage Supervisor. It’s loads simpler so as to add and take away apps from varied completely different teams than it was; minimizing a window places it into its personal house which you could add extra apps to (or simply apply it to its personal).

There are a number of different new parts 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 exchange an identical three-dot window administration system from older variations of iPadOS however are much more intuitive. The purple one closes an app window fully, the inexperienced one makes a window full display 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 bother than it was price on something however a 13-inch iPad, however these new multitasking options make it straightforward to flip by way of a bunch of apps and pop into full display if I would like more room.

The expanded window tiling controls right here additionally make that simpler. When 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; you may also seize drag bars to additional alter how a lot house every app takes up. I actually favored a mode the place three iPhone-sized apps fill the display, and when there was one thing I needed to commit extra focus to, I simply hit its inexperienced button and went full display.

The menu bar, in the meantime, is fairly straightforward to elucidate. When you swipe down from the highest of the display (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 useful 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 quick, this all provides as much as a wildly improved iPad expertise. It doesn’t compromise the single-screen, centered mode that the iPad has all the time been recognized for, and it significantly 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 thing else

If this was the one change to iPadOS Apple made this 12 months, it will already be a worthwhile improve, however there are a bunch of different enhancements coming this fall. These embrace an improved Information 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 Cellphone 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 regular, the reality is way more nuanced. Nobody acquainted with Apple’s software program will probably be thrown off by this replace — every part works because it did earlier than, and when you’ll undoubtedly discover some refractive visible parts, it’s not the wholesale change that aggrieved social media posters would have you ever imagine. You can make issues look very completely different in case you, say, go for the brand new clear glass icon look, however you may also depart 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 diminished 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 fairly 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 machine.

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

Talking of Information, it has much more in frequent 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, similar to on the Mac. You can even add emoji and colours to folders for extra visible differentiation (and, let’s be trustworthy, somewhat extra enjoyable). And for the primary time, you’ll be able to decide particular apps to open completely different file sorts by default — so in case you’d fairly have PNG photographs 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 received a pleasant redesign with massive contact posters of your current calls. However what’s most useful 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’ll rapidly place a brand new name by way of your contact record or utilizing a conventional dialer. I’ve all the time favored the thought of having the ability to place calls on gadgets 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 considering 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 guide and people messages will find yourself in your primary 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 primary inbox — one thing like a supply particular person 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 Reside Translation, I’ll level you to my colleague Mat Smith’s iOS 26 overview. As is normally the case, practically each characteristic coming to the iPhone this 12 months can also be coming to the iPad, which means Reside 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 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 primarily based on my expertise with the current 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.