Enlarge / Widgets on iPadOS 15’s home screen.Samuel Axon
Last yr, Apple launched a meaty iOS replace for iPhones, however a few of the largest modifications did not make it over to the iPad. This yr, the iPhone replace is modest—so does that imply that the iPad replace is the large one this time round?
Well, that is determined by your perspective. iPadOS 15 brings virtually every thing iOS 15 delivered to iPhones, but it surely additionally brings these main iOS 14 omissions from final yr to the pill. As a consequence, iPadOS 15 looks like a big replace if you have not been utilizing an iPhone these days, however for those who’ve already used iOS 14’s new home screen and app library options, it as an alternative finally ends up feeling prefer it’s late to the get together.
We printed a prolonged, iPhone-focused overview of iOS 15 earlier this week. Consider this a brief addendum to that overview that places the highlight on the iPad. Refer to the earlier overview for particulars on new options like Focus that are not iPad particular or for a listing of iPads which can be supported by iPadOS 15.
The home screen
Let’s begin with the home screen, which noticed the largest transformation this yr, despite the fact that virtually every thing totally different about it was already obtainable on iPhones when iOS 14 launched in late 2020.
Arguably the most vital introduction to iPadOS 15 is the app library view, which iPhones acquired final yr. Swiping all the technique to the proper on the home screen will take you right here, the place you may discover a search area and a number of other folders that comprise each app you could have put in in your iPad. Unfortunately, as in iOS 14, you possibly can’t outline these folders your self; the software program generates them robotically.
The actual benefit right here is that the home screen is now not the solely place you possibly can retailer apps, which implies you possibly can take away apps from the home screen whereas nonetheless protecting them accessible each through Spotlight search and by visiting the app library screen.
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So you probably have an app that you simply use now and again however not each day—like one to test in in your funding portfolio, maybe, or an ordering app for a selected restaurant—you possibly can hold that app put in and use it everytime you need however hold your home screen clear and targeted.
Enlarge / The app library in iPadOS 15.Samuel Axon
When you attempt to delete an app on the home screen, you may be requested whether or not you wish to totally delete the app or simply relegate it to the app library.
Further, now you can conceal or present home screen pages, which performs properly with Focus mode (see the iOS 15 overview for particulars about that; it really works the similar on the iPad) to present you extra home screen customization than you have ever had earlier than.
The iPad additionally will get one thing that the iPhone did not: entry to the app library from the dock, which is rather more handy than swiping to the final web page on the home screen.
Widgets
The different main addition to the home screen is free-form widget help. The state of affairs with widgets has been a bit unusual; home-screen widgets debuted on iPadOS a few years previous, however this extra strong replace hit the iPhone first about a yr in the past and is just simply making its technique to the iPad with iPadOS 15.
(*15*) you possibly can beforehand place widgets in a predefined place on the very first home-screen web page, now you can place them anyplace on the home screen and in a number of totally different sizes, together with variations for sure widgets that weren’t obtainable on the iPhone.
You can both place widgets side-by-side on the home screen alongside app icons, or you possibly can place them in a stack that solely occupies as a lot area as a single widget; you possibly can swipe your finger on it to swap between widgets in that place. This is all simply as we noticed it on the iPhone after we reviewed iOS 14.
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Enlarge / Here’s certainly one of the TV app’s widget sizes.Samuel Axon
Unfortunately, arranging icons and widgets on the home screen nonetheless is an actual ache. The “wobble mode” icon-and-widget placement method and the home screen’s cascading checklist format have gotten to go; their limitations have solely develop into extra obvious as extra customization and options have been added.
Still, for those who can undergo via the frustration of breaking your format many instances over as you attempt to get every thing the place you need it, the mixture of widgets and the app library utterly modifications the approach the home screen works on the iPad, if you’d like it to. (If you do not, you possibly can simply ignore it all and use the iPad’s home screen simply as you all the time have.)
Multitasking
When Apple introduced iPadOS 15, it put multitasking entrance and middle. The new stuff right here is generally includes extra intuitive methods to entry options that existed earlier than, however they’re all welcome.
The new multitasking button
For instance, software home windows which can be in full-screen or split-view mode now have a three-dot ellipsis button at the high. Tapping or clicking that produces a small panel that lets you choose both full-screen, cut up view, or slide over.
Tapping full screen does simply what you’d anticipate; it makes the app full-screen. Tapping cut up view makes the app occupy half of the screen, then deposits you on the home screen the place you possibly can choose one other app to take up the different half.
Enlarge / At the high of the app on the left, you possibly can see the three choices which can be introduced up by the multitasking button. And in the app on the proper, you possibly can see what the button seems to be like earlier than you faucet it. (It’s the ellipsis at the top-center of the app.)Samuel Axon
Previously, the approach into cut up view was arduous. You would have one app in full screen, then you definitely’d swipe up from the backside of the screen to convey up the dock, and then you definitely’d long-press an app in the dock and drag it to the aspect of the screen till it clicked into cut up view. Needless to say, this methodology was not the best. The new setup is healthier, and it has the good thing about being intuitive, which the previous approach wasn’t. You’d most likely by no means work out the previous approach for those who weren’t proven.
Finally, tapping or clicking the slide-over button dumps the app into slide over, which places it in an iPhone app form and hovers it over your full screen or split-view apps. You can nonetheless swipe between slide-over apps, or transfer them off screen and again on once more at will.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_asset/file/25522136/CleanShot_2024_07_08_at_14.15.06.png "Phone mirroring on the Mac: a great way to use your iPhone, but it’s still very much in beta")
