Apple has officially announced iPadOS 16 at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC 2022), which receives major multitasking upgrades in order to make the iPad more like a laptop. While the update shares some new features with the new iOS 16 and macOS, it is the multitasking enhancements most iPad users have been asking for.
Read: These iPhones will be able to upgrade to iOS 16
iPadOS 16 gets a new redesigned Home app, like on iOS 16, and support for Passkeys in Safari. It will also get a new weather app and new whiteboard collaboration software coming later this year. But again, the most notable changes is on the multitasking front, unfortunately only available on iPads that run the new M1 chip architecture (and all subsequent silicon to come, naturally).
Stage Manager, a feature announced for macOS Ventura, is also coming to iPadOS 16. This means apps can be shown as windows that are able to overlap with one another and can be dragged and dropped into place. It can benefit from the improved screen real estate of an external display (resolutions of up to 6K are supported), and can allow up to eight apps to be displayed simultaneously (four on the iPad itself, and four on the external display).
Collaboration features are also being brought to iPadOS 16, which Apple decided to show off in a lengthy section of their presentation. You can start collaborating directly from the share sheet in office apps like Pages, allowing other users to jump in and start making edits to a central document. It sounds similar to what Google’s been offering in services like Docs and Sheets before now.
All of the participants in a Messages thread will now be alerted when something changes on the file. Apps with collaboration and new sharing tools include “Files, Keynote, Numbers, Pages, Notes, Reminders, and Safari” according to Apple’s press release.
