Malcolm Owen
Apple has refined the multitasking of iPadOS 26 to be more like the Mac experience, with new window management and a pointer that actually works well.
Users of the iPad have often proposed that putting macOS on the tablet would make it a multitasking powerhouse. While Apple didn't quite do that at WWDC 2025, its window management system has taken steps in that direction.
Just as in iPadOS 18, users can open apps fullscreen and use a corner handle tool to quickly resize them. Apps that were opened in full-screen or in a window will reopen to that sizing.
The ability to quickly resize windows is useful, but some of the ways that users can manage the windows are pretty much taken from macOS itself.
Expose in iPadOS 26 - Image Credit: AppleJust like the windows on macOS, users can see a small floating panel in the top left, showing three dots. Colored red, amber, and green like in macOS, the dots work in the same way, for quickly closing, minimizing, and full-screening apps.
The apps also appear next to a new Menu Bar, a per-window feature that offers the same sort of functionality as the Mac-based version.
Window Tiling is available, much like the Mac, with simple flicks used to reposition each window. Expose is also available, showing all open windows spread out on the screen for quick switching.
Trackpad and Bluetooth mouse users will also get to enjoy the new pointer. The indistinct circle pointer is now replaced by an arrow, which should help make selecting elements much easier.
Marko Zivkovic
Amber Neely
Andrew Orr
16 Comments
Honestly, I wish they would have brought the updated Spotlight features to the iPad. Obviously, they want you to buy a Mac, but that would have been cool to use on an iPad. Oh, well.
This is going to rock for iPad Pro.
When oh when are we going to see XCode for the iPad?
The background task thing is worth its weight in gold. Finally!
Personally I liked the circular pointer. I thought it was clever and differentiated itself from the arrow.
This is a game changer for iPad. I am 100% a Mac first person and use my iPad for consumption and very limited productivity only. That might change with the multi-taking, file management and audio changes they made this year.
They were never going to bring macOS to iPad as it is a walled garden (in most jurisdictions) for which they control the apps & revenue and has a more sandboxed, modern and responsive OS. They were never going to willingly open that up; it was always going to be an iterative move towards more flexibility and productivity for the user. It took longer than most people (myself very much included) hoped and thought it would but this year is a big step forward.