After its WWDC 2025 event, Apple described its upcoming iPadOS 26 update as “the biggest iPadOS release ever.” This doesn’t seem like it’s just a self-aggrandizing exaggeration, though — iPadOS 26 could actually change the way we think about the utility of a fifteen-year-old product that has long felt like an oversized iPhone designed for a cyclops.
The new OS brings us multi-tasking tools, a new windowing system, and the Preview app, which may not sound as alluring as “Liquid Glass.” But if you’ve ever tried to have a productive work day via iPad, then this news is more exciting than Sabrina Carpenter’s new album announcement (and that’s not just because her new song was kinda mid).
As it stands now, you can only have two windows open at once on the iPad, and navigating between the two windows is kind of a nightmare. If you’re trying to write an email while also looking at your calendar to confirm that you’re giving your coworker a good time to call you, then you’ll probably be toggling the two windows back and forth, struggling to see all of the relevant information. It’s kind of a mess, and a big reason why I never work on my iPad (despite having spent over $100 on Logitech’s detachable keyboard…)
If I have to refer to any sources during the writing process — whether that be a press release, interview notes, an email, a research paper, or, god forbid, all of the above — then I might as well just pull my phone out as a second tiny screen. Let’s just say, it isn’t the most user-friendly experience.
With the new window controls in iPadOS 26, you can see all of your open windows at once, then tile them intuitively to help you multitask. These window controls are also compatible with Stage Manager, which lets you organize your windows into specific environments. As a result, iPadOS is removing its older multitasking features, Split View and Slide Over.
Meanwhile, the iPad’s new Preview app makes it possible to edit and view PDFs natively, including features like AutoFill and Apple Pencil compatibility.
Like Mac products, iPad apps will now get a menu bar, which makes it easier to locate specific commands or features within an app. Developers also have access to customizing the menu bar in their own apps.
And if you often work with folders, you can pin them to your dock, rather than navigating through a clunky Files app.
There’s more to the new OS than these quality-of-life features (which, frankly, could’ve been shipped a while ago). Given the computing power of Apple’s silicon chips, iPadOS 26 can perform high-intensity background tasks like exporting a video, allowing you to keep working while waiting for the export to complete.
The iPad will become useful, in particular, to podcasters, video editors, content creators, or anyone who works in multimedia. In another new feature — which shouldn’t feel as novel as it does — you can choose a specific audio input for any app or website.
Even better, the iPad is getting a local capture feature, which lets you record your video calls from any conferencing app, then access audio and video files afterwards.
The iPad may not match a MacBook when it comes to overall utility. But maybe, hypothetically, your company-issued laptop is a 16″ MacBook Pro that weighs almost five pounds and is too large to use on an airplane or train without discomfort (please, go ahead and play the world’s smallest violin for me). And maybe, perhaps, you have a job that brings you to several conferences every year, where you walk miles a day across massive convention centers while lugging around a laptop to write articles as news breaks.
In that case, the ability to tote around an iPad and still get work done is going to be a game changer — and a relief for back pain.
