iPadOS 26: Apple’s Tablet Grows Up (Again)
Another June, another WWDC—and this time, Apple had something reasonably substantial to say about the iPad. They didn’t try to big up incremental upgrades that didn’t go far enough and simply frustrated iPad-first users. You see, it’s not the first time we’ve heard them promise a “truly desktop-class experience,” but with iPadOS 26, it feels like they mean it. And if you’re wondering what happened to all the OS numbers in between? Apple has tidied up its OS numbering system to reflect the year of its main usage period. This is why, despite being a 2025 release, the main shelf life of iPadOS (and the rest) will be 2026.
Across all of their platforms Apple have introduced a new look that they are calling Liquid Glass. Sure, it's a bit of a marketing flourish, and some might suggest it’s just a skin-deep refresh as Icons and widgets appear to be essentially the same, but now they come with a glossy, almost translucent quality. It’s like they’ve remade iPadOS with a dash of watercolour seen through a magnifying glass. Icons will subtly reflect the colours of your background and respond to light in clever ways, giving the whole system a feeling of depth and motion without being flashy. It’s tasteful, surprisingly elegant, and the most significant visual overhaul since iOS 7. Apple has borrowed from visionOS and brought that softer, layered aesthetic to the tablet. Early reports suggest that this redesign has gone a little too far, and notifications on the iPhone, in particular, can be very hard to read. It’s important to keep in mind that the OS is only out as a developer beta, so these extremes of glassy translucency may toned down and blurred up as feedback begins to pour in. We may see helpful changes when they release the public beta in a few months.
The biggest headline, and possibly the most requested feature, is proper windowed multitasking. Not just Stage Manager with a bit of flair—this is full-blown, drag-and-resize windows with menu bars, minimise buttons, and everything else you’d expect from a laptop. Apps now open in their own windows, which can be freely moved around, snapped, layered, or closed entirely. Apple’s insistence that they know best how to handle your windows on an iPad is seemingly long gone! Also, gone is the window limit; you are no longer limited to just four open windows, but you can have as many open as you like (though I have heard that 12 may be the new limit—even so, this should be enough for most people).
Another key win for power users is that background tasks now genuinely run in the background. That means if you’re uploading a video to YouTube or exporting a project from something like LumaFusion or Final Cut Pro for iPad, you can safely switch apps or carry on with other work without the process freezing or crashing. No more tiptoeing around your iPad while it finishes a render—finally, real multitasking means just that.
In a nice touch, Apple hasn’t forced you to use it either. Stage Manager is still here if you prefer it, and for casual use, you can still open apps full-screen like before (though Split View and Slide Over are apparently gone). The moment you connect a keyboard and trackpad—or plug into an external display—the iPad begins to behave like a very competent MacBook alternative. It’s hard not to see this as Apple finally admitting that power users need more than finger gestures. In fact, while watching the presentation by Craig Federighi, I thought his tone came across as less than subtlety trollish!
Speaking of Mac-like, a menu bar now appears across the top of apps when you hover near the top of the screen. This offers quick access to contextual actions without diving into many layers of settings. Combine that with the refinements to pointer control; everything feels tighter and more deliberate. The pointer is no longer round—it is indeed shaped more like the traditional mouse cursor we know and love.
Files has also received a significant update. You can now switch between icon, column, and detailed list views, resize columns, and assign colours and icons to folders. One tweak that will come in very handy is that you can now drag folders into the Dock and keep them there permanently for quicker access. Again, this is very Mac-like—and very welcome.
One surprise addition is a native (and powerful) Preview app—yes, the same kind Mac users have relied on for years. It appears like it will handle PDFs beautifully and, as a bonus that Mac users don’t have, supports full Apple Pencil markup. You can highlight, annotate, fill in forms, and export—all without needing to reach for a third-party app such as PDF Expert, which has been my go-to for a long time. This is a big one.
The Journal app, which debuted on the iPhone, now comes to the iPad with full Pencil support. You can log moods, scribble ideas, add locations, photos, and audio—all tied to specific days. With on-device intelligence, it’ll even suggest journal entries based on your activity. It’s one of those quietly brilliant features that could become a daily habit for the right kind of user.
FaceTime and Messages have also picked up a clever new trick: live translation. In FaceTime, you’ll see live subtitles in another language while still hearing the person speak in their original voice — perfect for cross-language chats without interrupting the flow. However, when it comes to standard phone calls, Apple takes it a step further: the iPad (or iPhone) will actually speak the translation out loud in real time!
Even gaming hasn’t been forgotten. A new Apple Games hub combines your Game Centre profile, achievements, and a new overlay for switching settings mid‑game or jumping into multiplayer. It’s a bit of a sleeper feature, but it adds polish if you regularly game on your iPad.
So what’s the catch? Well, not all iPads will get the complete set of features. You’ll need an M1 or newer iPad Pro or Air for Apple Intelligence, and only the latest A17 Pro iPad mini and base iPads will get some of the fancier tricks. But most of the visual and multitasking updates will roll out across newer devices.
iPadOS 26 is a significant update for the iPad. Not in the sense that it redefines what an iPad is, but because it finally delivers on what many of us have wanted for years. In my opinion it is no longer a ‘companion device’ that you use with a Mac but a computer that can finally stand on its own.
The iPad isn’t trying to be a Mac. But with iPadOS 26, it’s much closer than ever—and that’s something worth getting excited about.
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