IPadOS 26

Design language

iPadOS 26 introduced a new design language, the first since iOS 7, dubbed "Liquid Glass". Many UI elements are more transparent, similar to visionOS.

Multitasking

A redesigned optional windowing system replaced the Split View and Slide Over introduced in iOS 9,^[5] creating a similar experience to macOS. Apps are freely resizable, with "traffic light" controls akin to macOS that let a user minimize, close, or make an app full-screen. Window tiling options are also available when flicking windows to the edges of the display or using new tiling options.

The updated system is powered by a new windowing engine that optimizes window rendering by analyzing which windows are being actively used. This enables the new windowing system on all iPads that support iPadOS 26, while also allowing more windows on the screen at once.^[6]

Due to being revamped to use the same internal architecture, the existing Stage Manager is now supported on all iPads running iPadOS 26, rather than only on models with M-series chips and on A-series iPad Pro models with iPadOS 18 support.^[7] The windowing system occasionally exhibits behavior specific to Stage Manager, where windows may unexpectedly minimize or become inaccessible when another window is moved on-screen. As the system does not maintain stage groupings outside of Stage Manager, affected windows cannot be retrieved as a group and must be located manually.

A macOS-style menu bar is also available by swiping down on the top of the display or pushing the mouse pointer into the top of the display.^[8] If the user uses Fullscreen Apps rather than Windowed Apps or Stage Manager, the menu bar will not appear, neither will the shortcuts flyout from previous iPadOS versions.^[9] If an external display is connected and placed above the iPad display, users cannot push the mouse pointer into the top of the display, therefore requiring them to swipe down or use the keyboard shortcut. Similarly to other menus, users can type to select elements in the menu bar, but only on external displays. The traffic lights move into the menu bar if a window is in fullscreen. Toggling between a windowed and fullscreen state rapidly on an external monitor will cause the traffic lights to duplicate in the menu bar until it fills up and the system resprings.

By default, the system will add a safe area to the top of legacy applications to act as a title bar and container for the traffic lights whereas updated applications extend their interface all the way to the top border of the window with traffic lights being placed in-line. When moving a window to the top of the display, its top safe area widens to account for system elements and the menu bar.^[10] The system still hides the menu bar on external displays when a window is placed behind it. Disabling the windowing system also causes applications to still leave space reserved for the traffic lights, which are no longer available. In some versions of iPadOS 26, a bug existed that would cause apps to not exhibit a top padding at all, causing system elements to be overlaid on top of app content, including in Apple's own applications.

In iPadOS 26.1, Apple introduced Slide Over to the windowing system. Slide Over windows can be resized and placed along predefined vertically fixed points along either side of the display, they cannot be placed in the center of the display. They can also be pushed into the side of the display to hide them.^[11] It could be accessed through the traffic lights' context menu or through the menu bar. A window that is in Slide Over will always float on top of other windows and persist across stages when Stage Manager is enabled. It is denoted by a Liquid Glass backplate that extends past the window borders. This version of Slide Over does not feature an independent app switcher like previous versions, so only one window can be in Slide Over at any given time and Slide Over windows can no longer be dismissed with a trackpad gesture. If the user returns to the Home Screen and opens a window previously in Slide Over, it will remain in Slide Over. Windows can leave Slide Over by another window entering it, placing the window in fullscreen, dragging and holding it into the center of the display or the traffic lights and menu bar.^[12]

In iPadOS 26.2, Apple added new gestures to create window tiling setups by dragging app icons from the dock to either outer edge of the display to tile to half the display's size, the center of the display to open as a window or onto chevrons that appear to the left and right of the display to place a window in Slide Over.^[13] If another window is in fullscreen or filled above the dock, it will reflow to enable a tiling layout. Users can minimise one app and maximise another by dragging the divider bar all the way over, causing the minimised window to open in fullscreen the next time it is invoked.^[14] This addition is commonly referred to as the return of Split View, however, Apple does not refer to it as such as window tiling generally does not line up with Apple's definition of a Split View.^[15]

In iPadOS 26.4, Apple added grey outlines around windows should Dark Mode be enabled. These precisely follow the window's outline, which fill in corners while tiling, so the outline will extend into the rounded corners of the display found in many iPad models. This was not addressed in 26.5.

Journal

The Journal app, previously available only on iOS, now has a dedicated iPadOS and macOS version, with the iPadOS version having support for the Apple Pencil stylus.^[16]

Preview

iPadOS 26 now includes a Preview app, similar to its macOS counterpart, with Apple Pencil support for features such as markup.^[17]

Local Capture

iPadOS can now record high-quality video and audio streams separately while using applications like video conferencing, which can be shared or used in podcasting editing applications.^[18] The local capture is encoded as an MP4 file, using HEVC video and FLAC audio.^[19]