Last year, Apple completely reinvented multitasking on the iPad, with the introduction of windowing in iPadOS 26. At first, this meant the removal of the simpler version of multitasking, Split View and Slide Over. Those features did eventually return, but at a cost – they required you to use the clunky new windowing system. I was hoping iPadOS 27 would improve this, but it didn’t.
To be clear, I don’t actually have a total opposition to the new windowing system in iPadOS 26 (and now 27). It has a time and a place, and when I’m trying to bounce between multiple apps at once on my 13-inch iPad Pro with Magic Keyboard, it works exceptionally well. I have mixed feelings about it on smaller iPads, but it’s fine.
What I don’t like, however, is the fact that the only other option (other than Stage Manager, which is more of a feature within windowing than a different option) is to use every single app in full screen – with no sort of flexibility.
As mentioned earlier, iPadOS 26 did eventually bring back Split View and Slide Over in later betas – but you can only use them if you only have windowing turned on. This meant that if you wanted the simpler versions of multitasking, you had to deal with all of the layers of complexity meant for pro users.
It’s certainly fine, but at times it simply gets annoying that you have to position your windows just right for it to snap into Split View or Slide Over, whereas it was much more seamless prior to iPadOS 26. It’s also a loss for people who love windowing, because if you drag your window ever so slightly wrong, it might enter Split View when you don’t want it to.
Apple does let you long press the traffic lights to get more specific toggles for managing Split View and Slide Over states, but this also doesn’t feel right for just simple iPad usage.
Split View and Slide Over belong on iPadOS for sure, but shoveling them in within windowing makes it more complicated than it needs to be, even a year later.
Ideally, there’d be two sets of multitasking options on iPadOS: Classic and Pro. Classic would largely open apps in full screen, but have the options for Slide Over and Split View, and Pro would have the windowing that iPadOS 26 introduced. Within Pro, there’d also be an option to enable/disable Stage Manager.
It annoys me that slide over hasn’t truly returned. I don’t care for stage manager unless I have the Magic Keyboard case or a display connected to it (side note it would be nice if the iPad went into stage manager mode when connected to either). I wonder how the iPhone fold will handle multitasking.
Overall, I just feel like Apple took the iPad too far in one direction for Magic Keyboard/laptop replacement users, and the multitasking experience is a bit lacking for those who just want their iPad to be an iPad. Bringing back a “simple” multitasking option would go far in that direction.
How do you feel about iPad multitasking since iPadOS 26? Let us know in the comments.
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Michael is 9to5Mac’s Weekend Editor, keeping up with all of the latest Apple news on Saturday and Sunday. He got started in the world of Apple news during the pandemic, and it became a growing hobby. He’s also an indie iOS developer in his free time, and has published numerous apps over the years.
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