Alongside iOS 16.1, Apple today released iPadOS 16.1, with the update coming after several months of beta testing. This is the first version of iPadOS 16 that has been available for Apple's tablets, as iOS 16 was released on its own back in September. iPadOS 16 was delayed in order for improvements to be added to the Stage Manager feature.
The iPadOS 16.1 update can be downloaded on eligible iPads over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update.
Those who have already updated to iOS 16 will be familiar with many of the features introduced in iPadOS 16.1 as the iPadOS 16.1 software adds the Mail, Messages, Safari, and other app updates that first debuted in iOS 16.
It introduces iCloud Shared Photo Library for easier sharing of photos and videos with friends and family, plus it brings Stage Manager. Stage Manager is compatible with the A12Z, A12X, M1, and M2 iPad Pro and iPad Air models. Stage Manager was originally limited to M1 iPads, but during the beta testing process, Apple was able to expand it to additional iPad Pros.
As a result of the expansion, the feature that allows it to work with a connected display has been removed and will be reintroduced in a later update. When that feature is re-added, it will only be available for the M1 and M2 iPad models.
Today's update brings the Weather app to the iPad for the first time, plus it adds new Maps, Game Center, and Safari features, such as Passkeys. It also includes desktop-class apps with customizable toolbars, menus with better context, Find and Replace availability across apps, and more. Apple's full release notes for the iPadOS 16.1 update are below.
iCloud Shared Photo Library
- Separate library for seamlessly sharing photos and videos with up to five other people
- Setup rules allow you to easily contribute past photos based on start date or people in the photos when you set up or join a library
- Library filters for quickly switching between viewing the Shared Library, your Personal Library, or both libraries together
- Shared edits and permissions let everyone add, edit, favorite, caption, and delete photos
- Sharing toggle in Camera lets you choose to send photos you take straight to the Shared Library, or enable a setting to share automatically when other participants are detected nearby using BluetoothMessages
- Edit a message for up to 15 minutes after sending it and recipients see a record of edits
- Undo send allows you to recall any message up to 2 minutes after sending it
- Mark as unread makes it easy to come back to a conversation later
- SharePlay in Messages lets you enjoy activities like watching movies, listening to music, playing games, and more with friends while messaging
- Collaboration provides a simple way to invite others to collaborate on a file via Messages and get activity updates in the thread when someone makes an edit to a shared project
- Improved search delivers more accurate, complete results and provides suggestions as soon as you begin to type
- Undo send allows you to cancel delivery of a message within 10 seconds of hitting send
- Scheduled send for sending an email at a specific day and time
- Follow‑up surfaces sent emails that have not been replied to, to the top of your inbox so you can quickly follow‑up
- Remind me lets you schedule a date and time to be reminded about an emailSafari and Passkeys
- Shared Tab Groups let you share a set of tabs with others and see the Tab Group update instantly as you work together
- Tab Group start pages can be customized with different background images and favorites for each Tab Group
- Pinned tabs in Tab Groups enable you to pin frequently visited websites for each Tab Group
- Safari web page translation adds translation for web pages in Turkish, Thai, Vietnamese, Polish, Indonesian, and Dutch
- Passkeys offer support for an easier and safer sign‑in method to replace passwords
- Passkey syncing through iCloud Keychain makes your passkeys available across all your Apple devices while keeping them end-to-end encryptedStage Manager
- A new way to multitask on iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later) and iPad Air (5th generation)
- Overlapping and resizable windows allow you to adjust the size of your apps and arrange your ideal workspace
- Recent Apps arranged on the left of the screen allow you to quickly switch between apps
- App groups allow you to create sets of apps that you can quickly get back toNew Display Modes
- Reference Mode delivers reference color for popular color standards and video formats on the 12.9-inch iPad Pro with Liquid Retina XDR display and with Sidecar, use it as a reference display for your Apple silicon Mac
- New display scaling setting that increases the pixel density so you can view more in your apps on iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation and later) and iPad Air (5th generation)Weather
- Weather app on iPad is optimized for the larger display, including immersive animations, detailed maps, and tappable forecast modules
- Weather maps show precipitation, air quality, and temperature alongside the location view or in full screen
- Tappable modules reveal more detail such as hourly temperature or precipitation forecasts for the next 10 days
- Air quality displays a color coded scale for air quality, level and category, and you can view air quality on a map to see related health recommendations, pollutant breakdown, and more
- Animated backgrounds represent the sun position, clouds, and precipitation with thousands of variations
- Severe weather notifications let you know when a severe weather alert has been issued near youGame Center
- In-Game Dashboard Activity shows you what your friends are accomplishing in this game, and what they are playing and achieving across all games in one place
- Game Center Profiles highlight your achievement and leaderboard activity across all of the games you play
- Contacts integration shows your friends' Game Center profiles and lets you see what they are playing and accomplishing in gamesLive Text
- Live Text video support allows you to interact with text in a paused video frame so you can copy, translate, lookup, share, and more available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
- Quick actions let you take action on data detected in photos and videos with a single tap, so you can track flights or shipments, translate foreign languages, convert currencies, and more, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all modelsVisual Look Up
- Lift subject from background isolates the subject of an image so you can copy and paste it into apps like Mail and Messages, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
- Visual Look Up adds recognition of birds, insects, spiders, and statues in your photos available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all modelsSiri
- Easy Shortcuts setup makes it possible to run shortcuts with Siri as soon as you download an app with no upfront setup
- A new setting allows you to send messages without Siri asking you to confirm before sending
- "Hey Siri, what can I do here?" helps you discover Siri capabilities in iPadOS and apps just by asking, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
- Call hang up option for ending Phone and FaceTime calls with Siri by saying "Hey Siri, hang up", available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
- Emoji support lets you insert emoji using your voice when sending messages on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all modelsDictation
- All-new Dictation experience supports using your voice along with keyboard or Apple Pencil to enter and edit text, available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all models
- Automatic punctuation inserts commas, periods, and question marks as you dictate
- Emoji support lets you insert emoji using your voice available on iPad (8th generation and later), iPad mini (5th generation and later), iPad Air (3rd generation and later), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later) and iPad Pro 11-inch all modelsMaps
- Multi-stop routing supports adding up to fifteen stops along your driving route in Maps
- Transit fares show you how much your journey will cost in the San Francisco Bay Area, London, New York, and moreHome
- Redesigned Home app makes it easier to navigate, organize, view, and control your smart home accessories
- Home tab now integrates all your accessories, rooms, and scenes into a single tab for a whole-house view, allowing you to see your entire home at a glance
- Categories for lights, climate, security, speakers and TVs, and water let you quickly access all the relevant accessories organized by room, and displays more detailed status information
- New camera view displays up to four cameras front and center in the Home tab, scroll to see any additional camera views in your home
- Redesigned accessory tiles feature more visually recognizable icons that are color-matched to their category, and new behaviors for more precise accessory controls
- Matter, the new smart home connectivity standard, is supported enabling a wide variety of smart home accessories to work together across ecosystemsNews
- My Sports enables you to easily follow your favorite teams and leagues and watch highlights right in the News app
- Favorites give you easy access to the channels and topics you read the most, in a consistent place near the top of your Today feed
- New homepages deliver visually updated and easier to navigate topic feeds for local news locales, sports teams and leagues, and moreFamily Sharing
- Improved child account setup makes it easier to create an account for a child with the right parental controls, including age‑appropriate media restrictions
- Device setup for a child lets you use Quick Start to easily set up a new iOS or iPadOS device for your child with your selected parental controls in place
- Screen Time requests in Messages make it even easier to approve or decline requests from your child
- Family Checklist gives you tips and suggestions like updating a child's parental control settings, turning on location sharing, or just reminding you to share your iCloud+ subscription with everyoneDesktop-Class Apps
- Customizable toolbars allow you to add the features you use most often in your apps
- Menus provide additional context for actions such as close, save, and duplicate, making it easier to edit documents and files in apps like Pages and Numbers
- Find and Replace is available in apps across the system, including Mail, Messages, Reminders, and Swift Playgrounds
- Availability view in Calendar shows availability of invited participants when you create meetings in CalendarSafety Check
- Safety Check is a new section in Settings to help people in domestic or intimate partner violence situations quickly reset the access they've granted to others
- Emergency reset lets you quickly take action to reset access across all people and apps, including disabling location sharing via Find My, resetting privacy permissions for apps, and more
- Manage sharing and access helps you review and customize which apps and people can access your informationAccessibility
- Door detection in Magnifier locates a door, reads signs and symbols around it, and gives you instructions for how to open the door
- Live Captions (beta) automatically converts audio into text for users who are Deaf or hard of hearing to follow along more easily with calls and media content
- Buddy controller helps users with cognitive disabilities get support from a caregiver or friend while playing a game, by combining inputs from multiple game controllers into one
- VoiceOver is now available in over 20 new languages and locales, including Bangla (India), Bulgarian, Catalan, Ukrainian, and Vietnamese
- Voice Control spelling mode gives you the option to dictate names, addresses, or other custom spellings letter by letterThis release also includes other features and improvements:
- New Watercolor, Monoline, and Fountain pens in Notes
- AirPods Pro (2nd generation) support, including Find My and Precision Finding for the MagSafe Charging Case as well as Personalized Spatial Audio for a more precise and immersive listening experience, also available on AirPods (3rd generation), AirPods Pro (1st generation), and AirPods Max
- Handoff in FaceTime allows you to move FaceTime calls seamlessly from your iPad to your iPhone or Mac, and vice versa
- Memoji updates include more sticker poses, hairstyles, headwear, noses, and lip colors
- Translate camera lets you translate text around you using the camera in the Translate app
- Duplicate detection in Photos identifies duplicate photos so you can quickly clean up your library
- Pinned lists in Reminders helps you quickly navigate to your favorite lists
- Search on the Home Screen enables Spotlight to be accessed directly from the bottom of the Home Screen, making it easy to open apps, find contacts, or get information from the web
- Rapid Security Response gets important security improvements to your devices even faster, as they can be applied automatically between standard software updatesThis release includes even more features and improvements. For more information, please visit this website: https://www.apple.com/ipados/ipados-16/features/
Some features may not be available for all regions or on all iPad models. For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit this website: https://support.apple.com/kb/HT201222
iPadOS 16.1 addresses a long list of vulnerabilities, including a kernel issue that Apple says may have been actively exploited. More information is available in Apple's security support document.
Additional information on all of the new features that are available in iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 can be found in our dedicated roundups.
