Installing iPadOS 26 doesn’t mean losing Split View from your iPad! Graphic: Apple
Apple kept Split View side-by-side multitasking in iPadOS 26 — despite what you might have read online. And setting it up is as easy as a couple of flicks of your finger.
Here’s how to keep using Split View on your iPad. Apple even made a video that demonstrates what to do.
No more mad swiping at the screen — learn the details of how your iPad works. Image: Leander Kahney/D. Griffin Jones/Cult of Mac
Gestures are a great way to become an iPad power user. They help you easily navigate through apps, switch between pages, access controls, and reduce multiple taps to a single swipe. iPad gestures prove especially useful for Stage Manager, the iPad’s alternative multitasking environment.
Apple designed these iPad gestures to mimic natural, real-world movements, making them intuitive to use and learn. Swiping, pinching, tapping and other moves feel familiar. You should find them easy to master.
If you use your iPad a lot, these gestures are well worth learning. Your fingers will thank you!
Gmail users can finally enjoy the benefits of Split View multitasking. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Google finally lets Gmail users read their email while also displaying another app. Apple introduced Split View multitasking way back in 2015, but it’s just now coming to this popular email application.
Microsoft Outlook on iPad can at last show email next to a calendar. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Microsoft’s combined email and calendar application finally offers full support for iPad multitasking. Outlook now supports Split View, so users can have their mail and calendar open next to each other.
Split View is great, but it's way too hard to use. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Apparently, some people really hate multitasking on the iPad. It’s easy to see why. All you have to do is accidentally drag a link in Safari, instead of just tapping on it, and you end up with a split-screen view, with that link in its own window. And getting rid of that window is a huge pain, even if you know how to do it.
Fortunately for people who hate iPad multitasking — which isn’t really multitasking, but is Apple’s term for the confusion of multiple-window views on iPadOS — Apple lets you turn off the feature. Here’s how to disable iPad multitasking (and why you might not want to).
By now, you know that you can use multiple windows from the same app in iPadOS 13, just like you can on the Mac. And you probably also know that it’s a pain to open a new window from scratch. You have to open the app, then slide the Dock up from the bottom of the screen, then tap the app icon again, then tap the little + icon at the top right.
But did you know that there’s an easier way to open a new window in iPadOS? You can just drag an item to the edge of the screen, and drop it there to open it in a brand-new Split View window. Let’s check it out.
A concept video shows an iPhone with iPadOS’ Dock and Split View. Photo: TechBlood
A new proposal imagines iPhones running next year’s iOS 14 able to display two applications side-by-side. Split View would enable users to, for example, look at a webpage while writing an email, and drag-and-drop items between them.
Watch a concept video of iPhone multitasking in action now:
Apple has dropped a series of how-to videos that help you get the most out of iPadOS. You can use them to master features like Slide Over, Split View, and brand-new gestures.
The iPad now has app windows. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
In the next version of iOS, the iPad will be able to open several “copies” of the same app. You can then switch between them, treating them just like any other individual apps, or you can combine these instances with other apps.
For example: You could have one “space” with your Mail app and your to-do app in a 50:50 Split View. And then you can have another space with a different instance of your Mail app and, for instance, the Notes app. Each version of the Mail app can show a different folder or message.
You can even have two versions of, say, the Maps app, sharing the same screen, showing totally different places. It’s a powerful addition to iPad multitasking. Let’s see it in action.
Chatting with friends couldn't be easier. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Mac
Fortnite’s brand new Party Hub makes it easier than ever for mobile players to stay in touch with friends.
You can use it to chat to other players both inside and outside of the game. It will tell you which of your friends are online and let you start a party before jumping into a match on any platform.
Multitasking gives you the power to use up to three apps at once on iPad. Photo: Ian Fuchs/Cult of Mac
iPad multitasking gets a boost in iPadOS, with tweaks and enhancements that make it easier to do more on Apple tablets.
If you use an iPad for anything beyond watching videos, you should be thrilled by these changes, which boost inter-app productivity. Here’s how to take advantage of the different flavors of multitasking in iPadOS.
View two documents, or one document and its preview, at the same time. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Ulysses, the best long-form writing app on iOS and Mac in my opinion, just got a sweet update. It adds support for publishing to Ghost blogs, but even better for almost everyone is the addition of split-screen editing. This lets you view two Ulysses documents side by side, on the same screen. It might not sound like much, but it’s surprisingly powerful.
Apple's market share climbed 4% last quarter. Photo: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
iOS 13 will bring big improvements and a whole bunch of new features to iPhone and iPad users this fall.
Many of the changes have been spilled in a new report that cites people familiar with the update. You can look forward to a real dark mode, better multitasking, a font manager, and more.
Larger iPads should be able to display three applications at once. Photo: Daniel Korpai
Building on the somewhat limited side-by-side multitasking already available to iPad users is the goal of a new concept video. Its creator proposes enabling three applications to be open simultaneously, and includes a simple method for swapping between more.
We’re expecting big things from iOS 12, including a whole host of improvements that will make our devices more stable, and plenty of welcome bug fixes. Apple will surely surprise us with some nice new features, too.
Here’s our lengthy wish list for this update, which includes a Home screen overhaul, a more powerful FaceTime, better multitasking, and more!
This is how they did Split View on the olden days. Photo: Charlie Sorrel/Cult of Mac
Split view on the iPad is amazing. Two apps, side-by-side, open up all kinds of neat shortcuts. You can drag text, links, and pictures from Safari into notes apps, emails, Pages documents and so on. The Mac is less in need of such a mode, because screens are bigger, and you can already place two windows side-by-side, but on a little MacBook, where every 1/64th inch counts, Split View is a great feature. Here’s how to use it.
Amazon Kindle can now be displayed next to another app. Graphic: Ed Hardy/Cult of Mac
Viewing two applications at once came to the iPad way back in iOS 9, but the Amazon Kindle app only just now supports it. The new multitasking feature enables tablet users to have a book open while using another app.
And this isn’t the only notable improvement in the just-released update to Amazon’s Kindle app.
The iPad has an amazing split-screen mode. It’s called Split View, and it lets you use two apps side-by-side. On certain iPads, you can even float a third app over the top. Split View lets you drag and drop text, pictures, links and almost anything else between apps, just like on a Mac or PC. It’s also super-easy to use. Let’s see how.
Is the iPad Pro a true PC replacement? Photo: Apple
The post-PC world is closer than we think, according to the latest Apple video ad that was published on the company’s YouTube today.
The whimsical new ad for the iPad Pro follows a young girl around town as she video chats with friends, takes photos, does homework, draws with Apple Pencil, reads comics and more all from her iPad Pro.
Drag-and-drop is a great. way to get things done, but not the only way. Photo: Cult of Mac
iOS 11’s biggest new feature, for iPad users at least, is drag-and-drop support, which goes way beyond just letting you drag a file or snippet of text between apps. I’ve been using iOS 11 since the first beta last summer, and while drag-and-drop was neat, it didn’t really come into its own until third-party apps started supporting it.
Two things have surprised me. One: How useful drag-and-drop is inside a single app (which works on iPhone, too). And two: How bad drag-and-drop is for certain tasks.
macOS High Sierra is ready for primetime. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
The wait for macOS High Sierra is finally over.
Apple unleashed its huge update for the Mac this morning bringing a host of new features and UI changes to desktops after months of beta testing. Most of the update contains under-the-hood changes the makes machines faster and more stable, but there are plenty of new additions to love.
iOS 11 for iPad might be Apple's biggest new product this year. Photo: Apple
Updated 27 June, 2017: This post now includes details about the iOS 11 public beta.
Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference keynote this June was so packed that even two-and-a-half hours didn’t seem like enough time. And yet the biggest announcement wasn’t new hardware, or a new app. It was an update.
Specifically, the iOS 11 update for the iPad, which turns Apple’s tablet from little more than a big iPhone into a full-featured touchscreen PC. In one go, Apple showed that it is still full-steam behind the iPad, and that a desktop-class touchscreen computer doesn’t have to actually run a desktop OS, like Microsoft’s Surface.
Don't pay full price for a 10.5-inch iPad Pro. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
I could be the poster boy for Apple’s “iPad problem.”
That problem, in a nutshell, is this: Even long-in-the-tooth iPads several generations old continue to work just fine for many everyday tasks. That, in turn, slows the upgrade cycle. iPad sales drop, and pundits pile on to declare that Apple is doomed. Again.
I’m one of those cheapskates who couldn’t be bothered to shell out for a new iPad over the past few years but a freak accident — and the surprisingly convincing unveiling of the 10.5-inch iPad Pro at last week’s Worldwide Developers Conference — finally coaxed me out of iPad complacency.
I’m thrilled I finally wised up. The new 10.5-inch iPad Pro is a beast of a machine that’s so fast, smooth and responsive that it makes me feel like I’m in a sci-fi movie interacting with a killer device that hasn’t been invented yet. It feels like the future!
Dropbox today rolled out a big update for its iOS app, adding a number of nice new features. In addition to an iMessage app for iOS 10, the release also brings the ability to sign PDF documents and a handy Today screen widget.
iOS 10.1 brings some tweaks to the iPhone. Photo: Ste Smith/Cult of Mac
Developers received a batch of new beta software updates today bringing a bunch of bug fixes to the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch and Apple TV.
iOS 10.1 beta 2 is the most notable of the new beta builds. The last version added the new Portrait Mode to the iPhone 7 Plus, which has earned rave reviews so far, though some early images have shown it still needs some tweaking.