We’ve come a long way since the first iPad in 2010. That one ran iPhone OS 3.2, and critics mocked it as a giant iPhone. They did have a point, but even then Apple was making the iPadOS different from the iPhone one – and with each new release, those differences have become much more significant. iPadOS 16 really blurs the lines between iPads and Macs, especially when it comes to multitasking. iPadOS 16 isn’t trying to turn your iPad into a Mac, though. It’s still very much a mobile operating system that plays to the iPad’s particular strengths; its portability, its touchscreen, and its ability to completely transform into different things based on the app you’re using. This is a very big update. It introduces a brand new way of working with multiple apps, it gives Mail and Messages some brilliant new features, it vastly improves your security when you go online and it makes it easier to share the things you love with the people that matter to you. It can even turn back time to undo embarrassing mistakes in messages or emails.
Over the next few pages we’ll discover all the killer features of iPadOS 16, and we’ll show you how to make the most of them.
Whether you have the standard iPad, an iPad Air or the biggest iPad Pro, this latest OS update will make your iPad more flexible, more fun and more you.
Stage Manager and Multitasking changes
One of iPadOS 16’s biggest changes is a little controversial
Stage Manager, the new multi-tasking interface in iPadOS 16, has had a bit of a bumpy ride; it’s been widely criticised by many prominent developers for its many bugs in the iPadOS betas, and it’s been suggested that those bugs are at least part of the reasonAs things stand at the moment Stage Manager is now officially a beta feature, and one of its previously announced benefits – external monitor support – has been temporarily removed. Device compatibility has been changed too; what was originally reserved only for M1 and M2-powered iPads now works on iPad Pros with A12X and A12Z chips.
