iPadOS 15 includes most of the new changes that were introduced in iOS 15, but there are also some iPad-specific features designed specifically for Apple's larger-screened iOS devices. One of these new features is an update to multitasking, which we've highlighted in our latest YouTube video.
Multitasking can be done the same way as it was before, but there's also a new multitasking menu that streamlines the multitasking experience, offering quick-tap options for entering into Split View or Slide Over with two apps. In the App Switcher view, you can also get into a quick Split View mode by dragging one app's window onto another, which is handy.
Apple also added a "Shelf" feature for managing multiple windows of the same app, so if you have multiple Safari windows, you can use the Shelf to swap between them for multitasking purposes.
There are multiple keyboard shortcuts that are available for multitasking to make it easier to swap between windows without your fingers having to leave the keys. Many of the shortcuts use the Globe key on an attached keyboard.
These new multitasking features will take some time to get used to, but overall this seems to make multitasking more intuitive to use. Have you tried iPadOS 15? Let us know what you think in the comments.
Top Rated Comments
This is certainly a UI improvement, and I like that there are more visual cues and less reliance on learning swipe-gestures. But this solves none of the reasons that people felt limited by multitasking on iPad.
Specifically, the maximum number of concurrent apps is still just two (three if you count the slide-over which has it's own usability challenges) and only in limited space configurations. But the bigger issue is there is no way to run a computationally or network intensive process in the background indefinitely. It is not true multitasking if important processes have to be kept in the foreground in order for them to complete.
“Why can’t Apple move to a biyearly update schedule or focus only on stability and speed every other year? This release is so buggy. I miss snow leopard!”
People when Apple doesn’t introduce many new features (which generally results in a more stable release):
“Apple can’t innovate anymore, they’re letting their platform stagnate. I’m switching to Android/Windows.”