iPadOS 26 preview: The rare software update that makes (most) old hardware feel new
If you position two windows side by side and try to resize them so that they touch one of their edges, the iPados will leave a small gap with a dragable zone between the two so that you can resize the two windows at a time, a bit like how to resize applications in the Split View mode used to work. Even if you like them like this, your active window throws a subtle shadow on the inactive window, which clearly indicates which is ready to receive an entrance.
Overall, the new system tries (and largely succeeds) in finding a balance, allowing users to have freely redonable windows which overlap while taking into account the occasional imprecision of the finger entrance.
The greatest thing that seems to need more work is the transition between portrait and landscape modes, which is elegant and well considered sometimes and just in disorder other times. Divide your third-party uniform screen in landscape modes, and iPados will hide the one in the middle when you turn into portrait mode, dividing the screen halfway between the left and right windows.
But other times, the windows would be rearranged apparently at random, with unused space and strange gaps that force you to expand and move all your windows. In general, the multitasking interface seems to assume that you will use your tablet mainly in one way or another. Especially with an attached keyboard, you will almost always use landscape modes, making transitions sometimes disorderly. But the rest of the interface does a fairly good job balancing traditional windows with the realities of iPad equipment and iPados as a platform, it is therefore worth calling the places where it still does not seem polite.
Of course, it is possible to recreate the appearance and feeling of the full screen view using the new system. The additional complexity makes it slightly more complicated, but it is functionally similar (even to the small “pill” in the space between the windows of the application which allows both to be resized simultaneously).
Credit: Andrew Cunningham
I would also say that on the 10 and 11 inch iPad equipment, in typical daily use, I often find myself returning to the same basic layout that I would have used in view and slide during the days – an application focused on messages by taking about a quarter of the screen, and safari or a writing application, I actively work to take the remaining three quarters of the space. The screens of these devices are small enough so that you simply cannot adapt to a large number of windows that overlap useful; The new iPad tunes and pros have the “more space” display option, at least, and you will want to activate this if your eyes can manage it to recover a little bit of more usable real estate.
