iPadOS 26 Announced
While maintaining the simplicity of iPad, iPadOS 26 introduces an entirely new powerful and intuitive windowing system with new features that help users control, organize, and switch between apps. Apple Intelligence becomes even more capable and integrated across iPadOS 26, with new features that help users communicate, express themselves, and get things done, including Live Translation, new ways to create with Genmoji and Image Playground, and intelligent actions with Shortcuts. The supercharged Files app offers new ways to organize files and customize folders. And with Folders in the dock, users can conveniently access downloads, documents, and more from anywhere. The Preview app comes to iPad, giving users a dedicated app to view and edit PDFs, with powerful features like Apple Pencil Markup and AutoFill built in. And with Background Tasks, audio input selection, and Local capture, iPadOS 26 unlocks new capabilities for creative pros working with audio and video.
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The new windowing system lets users fluidly resize app windows, place them exactly where they want, and open even more windows at once.
Familiar window controls allow users to seamlessly close, minimize, resize, or tile their windows. Window tiling is designed for the unique capabilities of iPad, and enables users to arrange their windows with a simple flick. If a user previously resized an app, it opens back in the exact same size and position when they open it again. With Exposé, users can quickly see all their open windows spread out, helping them easily switch to the one they need.
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With a new menu bar, users can access the commands available in an app with a simple swipe down from the top of the display, or by moving their cursor to the top. Users can quickly find a specific feature or related tips in an app by using search in the menu bar.
Did they finally nail iPadOS multitasking? I haven’t tried it yet, but based on the demo this is the most optimistic I’ve been about iPadOS in a long time. I kind of don’t know whether to be happy that they did the obvious things people have been asking for or upset that so much time was wasted failing to reinvent the wheel. This reminds me of the quest to get rid of the file system, where they also essentially admitted that they didn’t actually have a better idea. There are still three separate modes (windowing, full screen, and Stage Manager), like on the Mac, but I guess that’s OK.
The iPad’s (creeping) convergence towards macOS, which is something regular people will value highly. Although we are not getting hypervisor support (or any sort of terminal), at least Stage Manager is now an option and not the default, and windows behave in a mostly sane way (including a proper tiling mode).
Hot take on iPadOS 26: they… did it? They fixed windowing and multitasking?
… all these years of aborted multitasking and the answer was just to make a cursor and windows with Expose????????? All of that nonsense for no reason????
“We held the iPad back for years and are now turning the iPad into a Mac. We hope you’re fucking happy now.” – Craig F.
Turns out the Mac had some pretty good ideas when it comes to multitasking.
On the iPadOS changes — it’s as if Apple suddenly realized that Mac is pretty fucking good and a great model for the future of computing.
Arbitrarily resizable and overlapping windows with close, minimize, and full screen buttons on iPad!?
Can’t innovate anymore my ass!
OK at least Craig gave the snarky wink and nod at just copying the Mac after 15 years of dead ends on the iPad.
IMO this years winner is iPadOS 26 with multitasking that we always wanted.
Is iPadOS 26 going to finally solve the windowing system?
I am a fan of the new windowing scheme for iPadOS 26.
Definitely brings me back to the early days when the Mac first got the ability to handle multiple windows. A game changer then, certainly a step up today.
Really like the addition of Exposé. Very Mac-like.
iPad windowing looks good. Funny we were so worried the Mac would become too much like iOS, but sort of the opposite has happened to the iPad over the years. Files app also becoming a little more like the Finder.
And Preview app! And better background tasks!
Man, they’re gonna sell sooo many M5 iPad Pros
Maybe it’s not so bad when seen on device & in person, but from this screenshot iPadOS’ new tool-/title-/sidebar look really pains my eye. At just a blink I see:
- the radius of sidebar and window don’t match
- the small traffic light icons just look really off next to the show/hide toolbar icon
- that icon itself also looks off next to the free-floating toolbar icons
They actually did it!! They added traffic controls to windows!!
These look like “More…” menus, but they’re actually semaphore controls for each window. facepalm
Come on.
This looks way better than their previous attempts at a window multitasking UI on iPad. It feels like a cohesive system rather than a bunch of separate systems that can layer on top of each other.
So here’s a thing: I liked the original iPad windowing system. Split View. Slide Over. It worked. It was simple. What I also wanted was better external display support. But Apple pushed back against that for years, crapped out Stage Manager, and now we’ve got baby macOS on iPad. Not sure how this will play out.
Legitimately great iPadOS update leaning into complexity without oversimplifying. Real windowing, a menu bar, great tools for files. Might have to get an iPad again.
I’m sure these are all documented nicely somewhere and maybe this was around before, but THE GESTURE you want on iPadOS26 is double-tap on the top of the window to jump back and forth between window mode and full screen.
Previously:
Update (2025-06-11): Hartley Charlton:
The centerpiece of the multitasking improvements is a new macOS-style windowing system. Apps still launch in full-screen by default, preserving the familiar iPad experience, but users can now resize apps into windows using a new grab handle. If an app was previously used in a windowed state, it will remember that layout and reopen the same way next time.
Intuitive window tiling allows users to simply flick a window toward the edge of the screen to automatically tile it into place. To make managing multiple apps easier, Expose—a feature familiar to Mac users—comes to iPad , offering a clear overview of all open windows, allowing quick switching.
The more I use iPadOS 26, the more I wish the window traffic lights were just visible all the time in their maximized state. Make it so that I have to design my app around them, sure, but just stop hiding them. They’re fine, they make it easier to use, and having to tap them twice every time gets annoying fast
On iPadOS 26 the red close button now FULLY closes an app & the yellow just backgrounds it.
This is weird in situations like Music where the red button on macOS just backgrounds the app (expected, desired). Even more weird is that iPad ctrl-W behavior is now “red button” matched, killing Music.
The limit is 12, on an M4 iPad. Further windows get pushed into the recents carousel instead, but they return at the saved window size when you tap them
Some of my criticism of Stage Manager was that there were no APIs, and iPad ignored all the window management APIs that UIKit did have for Mac/visionOS — like sizing & positioning windows, setting their frame limits, click-to-drag, etc.
iPadOS 26 appears to make no changes in that regard; there are no APIs for these or any of the new windowing features. You cannot programmatically place or resize a window, or make auxiliary panels. And the systemwide ‘new window’ button is still non-negotiable.
Good and bad news after watching “Finish tasks in the background”:
The good: unlike what I initially believed after watching the keynote, the new background capabilities also come to iOS.
The bad: if you were hoping that iPadOS now supports permanently running background tasks, you’ll be disappointed. It’s now easier to continue user-initiated, longer running tasks in the background - but they need to come to an end eventually - or will be killed.
Really fascinating conversation with Federighi about the technical limitations/motivations behind the many many cuts at iPadOS multitasking.
These new tab bars sure are something. I imagine the opacity is going to change dramatically over the beta period. And these pure black glyphs probably will get some glass effect instead.
Update (2025-06-16): Kuba Suder:
Hmm… so I guess this won’t (easily) solve the “keep an SSH client session open in the background” problem…
Update (2025-06-18): Gui Rambo:
I really like what Apple has done with iPad multitasking in iPadOS 26, and I’m sure lots of power users are going to love it. For me, I still can’t quite get the hang of it. Even when doing the sort of tasks that the iPad is great at, it still feels like trying to use a Mac while wearing oven mitts.
I’ll keep trying a bit longer, as it might just be that I’m not as experienced. There could also be some beta 1 stuff making it more difficult.
It has confirmed for me that they’re going the wrong way. Making the Mac more touch friendly to allow for the convertible lifestyle would work better. I now have resizeable windows, but none of those windows are of the apps I need to do my job (vscode, terminal, docker, a proper browser, etc).
Previously:
Update (2025-06-24): Marco Arment:
Weird (undocumented?) thing I learned with some logging:
Code running in a BGProcessingTaskRequest is WAAAAYYYY slower than foreground app usage.
A CPU-heavy operation runs about 10X faster in the foreground than in a ProcessingTask set to require power, and while charging overnight.
It’s not just the CPU either: network operations can be an order of magnitude slower.
But it IS time-constrained, by Apple’s choice!
BGProcessingTasksare killed after 5 minutes.
This screenshot from their marketing page told me everything I needed to know about this year’s iPadOS update. No one plans a trip, reads a recipe, emails, and… learns violin at once. This is nonsensical. Cartoonish multitasking is not what multi-window support is for. But then you realize… they don’t know what it’s for. They don’t know why people keep asking for it. They actually have no idea why anyone would want it. There’s a reason the Mac is more single window every day.
This screenshot is not some anomaly. It’s true across all their marketing materials and the keynote. You quickly realize that there isn’t a single mildly interesting example, let alone a “killer use case”. The entire pitch is “you asked for it, here it is”. They make no effort to appeal to someone who didn’t already want this. During the keynote they play off the absurd demos as part of the “jokey act”, but notice they can come up with practical uses for the iPhone features that they show.
The great part about iPad’s new windowing model is that you can’t hide from it if you’re a developer. Users are going to window your apps, layouts are going to be resized, and your menu bar is going to be investigated.
The menu bar API, which is shared with Catalyst, should be your first port of call, as it’s something that apps shipping today, built with the older SDKs, now show in the OS. There are plenty of iPad apps that never filled out their menu bar, and you can/should fix that right now.
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Multitasking looks great, finally. And improvements to the Files app too. But one big question remains: are we FINALLY allowed to up- and download files to our own folders? Without some weird app syncing protocol? Idk, I fear that this will be too much.
Oh hey, look! iPad can finally do a handful of things that OS X could do nearly 25 years ago with a 1000x slower processor and 1000x less RAM.
This is progress?
I'm gonna guess that even with all of these updates to iPad OS, apps will still eventually unload tabs, forget where you are in the app, and/or reset back to a default view in the background if you "stay away from the app too long" or "launch too many other apps in the meantime" -- despite the fact that computers 2+ decades ago never forgot what you were doing in the background.
@Ben_G: you aren't helping. At. All. Let me explain, hopefully using english, where "gonna" isn't part of it.
-- 1000x slower processor and 1000x less RAM. Simple response: Proof? Details? And please, 25 years ago would be OS X beta at best. We all know how powerfuly *fast* that was.
-- Background processing. First, I agree. (Maybe if you were speaking about 15 years ago.And on iOS that ran on devices with much more liter resources than a Mac.)
Maybe iPad OS 26 won’t randomly unload/delete the contents of the clipboard after an arbitrary amount of time? You know, that thing that computers 2 decades ago could do?
I really hope they bring back Slide Over; there's nothing in the current schemes that can replaces what it does.
One nice thing I found accidentally is that in an app like Settings, when you're a few levels deep in the detail pane hierarchy, a swipe from the left edge will page back *in the detail pane*. A very minor pain point for me over the years, but it will be nice not having to reach up for the back button in those cases.
And I really want a Control Center control (or a Shortcuts action so I can make my own) that toggles between Full Screen & Windowed modes.
