iPadOS 26.1
Juli Clover (release notes, security, enterprise, developer):
iPadOS 26.1 reintroduces Slide Over, a multitasking feature that was removed with the multitasking overhaul in iPadOS 26 .
Slide Over works alongside the window-based multitasking functionality in iPadOS 26 , so you can open up multiple app windows and still swipe over to quickly access a Slide Over app. Only one Slide Over app is supported at a time in iPadOS 26.1, and the feature is accessible by tapping on the green window resizing button and choosing Enter Slide Over.
There was more discussion of this when the feature was in beta.
Apple heard from a vocal group of iPad users who relied on Slide Over to get their work done and has added the feature back to the OS with a twist. The new Slide Over supports a single app tucked just offscreen with a little Picture-In-Picture style indicator along the edge of your iPad’s screen. Previously, you could switch between multiple apps using a dedicated Slide Over switcher interface. However, now, your Slide Over window can be resized to any size, which wasn’t possible before. Also, the single Slide Over app is a per-display restriction, meaning that if you use an external display with your iPad, you get a second Slide Over app.
Second, Apple has added some new menu items for managing window. There are now options to hide your current window, hide your other windows, and close all of your windows, all of which close gaps between how windows work on the iPad and Mac.
I do question why Apple only allows one app in this returning version as opposed to multiple apps as it did before. It was always handy to keep multiple apps available throughout rehearsal, given that I prefer to have my script open full screen on the 11 inch iPad Pro.
As a side note, I’m not a fan of the Liquid Glass border around the window in Slide Over. It waists screen real estate, almost begging you to look at the feature. Even switching Liquid Glass to the new Tinted version, now also available in iOS 26, doesn’t erase or lessen that border or its distracting impact.
Previously:
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I know we (I) keep harping on this, but this is a great example. Why does everyone keep making software objectively worse? It just keeps going. For a decade now at least. Same pattern every time.
Feature works fine, here's our complete overhaul no one asked for, whoops we took out everything everyone used, ok here's an inferior version some time later.
Seriously what is going on?
@bart Because RND teams and product managers and designers need to show "impact", or their team's/personal position is put into question. It's a sickness in most medium+ organizations. They have to keep justifying their value to the company on a yearly basis. Also, knowing Apple, they have likely rewrote the whole windowing from scratch, again, and the kiddies just didn't feel like integrating their solution with the existing one. Probably rewrote it in Swift, but old solution was still Objective C, and eww square brackets! They are human after all! So they reinvent yet another wheel in a half- or quarter-ass way, the true Federighi-led way. And Tim Apple is just "thrilled".
