Apple wants to make the iPad more laptop-like with iPadOS 16

A new report suggests Apple will change iPad multitasking yet again with iPadOS 16, this time to enable multiple resizable windows similar to macOS.

Apple is set to announce a slew of new operating system updates during WWDC on Monday, but it seems the biggest changes may be coming to iPadOS. A new report from Mark Gurman suggests that Apple will make the iPad more laptop-like with new multitasking upgrades.

According to the Bloomberg report, upgrades coming with iPadOS 16 will be significant and make the iPad more like a laptop and less like a phone. The leaked information was shared by people familiar with Apple's plans.

The redesigned multitasking interface would make it easier to see what apps are open and switch between tasks. Windows would be movable and resizable similar to macOS, unlike the existing solution which places two windows side-by-side with fixed positions.

The iPad story has been somewhat confused in recent years as Apple has made big commitments in hardware that are never followed up in software. The latest iPad Pro runs the same M1 processor as a Mac, yet it doesn't run the same software and has a multitude of built-in limitations thanks to iPadOS.

If this reported leak proves true, then Apple's WWDC 2022 will be an exciting one for iPad fans and developers alike. Apple is also expected to announce new updates including iOS 16, macOS 13, and possible hardware like an AR headset. The WWDC keynote will be streamed live on Monday, June 6 at 10 a.m. Pacific via the Apple TV app, YouTube, and Apple's website.

25 Comments

tht 5592 comments · 23 Years

About 2 years ago

Yay! The day had to come. I can finally get an iPP12.9.

Also be mindful that Apple has to go all the way with multitasking. They can have arbitrarily sized apps, overlapping onscreen, but apps should be able to run in the background in perpetuity, the sound and video streams can be shared and multiplexed, the page file turned on, so on and so forth. The onscreen keyboard will hopefully get a nice update too. And, all this down in a multi-touch friendly way.

rob53 3303 comments · 13 Years

Does this mean multiple user accounts?

jpellino 707 comments · 18 Years

Remove the keyboard from a MBA M1 and you're most of the hardware-way to a double-thick iPad Pro M1. Yes, removing the "porthole" limitations of iOS would be wonderful.

rob53 said:

Does this mean multiple user accounts?

Not yet. If it was in the iPadOS 16 feature set, I would think Gurman would have mentioned it by now. They are 4 days out from the WWDC keynote. The feature set would have been frozen about 2 or 3 months ago. As it stands, a lot of features announced on Monday won't make it by Fall of 2022 and we could be waiting for Spring of 2023 for some of them. So, this new UI may be farther out then hoped.