Apple Announces iPadOS 17 With Custom Lock Screens and Interactive Widgets

Apple today at WWDC announced iPadOS 17, bringing several new features to iPads, including updates to widgets and the Lock Screen that bring more parity with iPhones.

ipados 17 lock screen
For the first time, iPads will support customized Lock Screens, while Home Screen widgets will be interactive. There's also now support for Live Activities, and the Health app is now available on iPad and takes advantage of the device's larger display sizes.

iPadOS 17 includes improvements across the Notes, Messages, FaceTime, and Safari apps. In the Messages app, for example, there is a new consolidated sticker drawer that brings all of a user's stickers into one place, including Live Stickers, emoji stickers, and third-party sticker packs. ‌iPad‌ users can also create their own stickers from photos.

Starting with iPadOS 17, PDFs appear full width on the screen. Apple has also introduced machine learning that can identify fields in a PDF so that users can quickly add details, such as names, addresses, and emails from the Contacts app.

iPadOS 17 is available in beta starting today, and will be publicly released later this year. The update is compatible with the second-generation iPad Pro, third-generation iPad Air, sixth-generation ‌iPad‌, and fifth-generation iPad mini and newer.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
iOS 26 Screens

Here Are All the iOS 26 Features That Require iPhone 15 Pro or Newer

Thursday June 12, 2025 4:53 am PDT by
With iOS 26, Apple has introduced some major changes to the iPhone experience, headlined by the new Liquid Glass redesign that's available across all compatible devices. However, several of the update's features are exclusive to iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 models, since they rely on Apple Intelligence. The following features are powered by on-device large language models and machine...
CarPlay Liquid Glass Dark

Apple to Let iPhone Users Watch Videos on CarPlay Screen While Parked

Thursday June 12, 2025 6:16 am PDT by
Apple this week announced that iPhone users will soon be able to watch videos right on the CarPlay screen in supported vehicles. iPhone users will be able to wirelessly stream videos to the CarPlay screen using AirPlay, according to Apple. For safety reasons, video playback will only be available when the vehicle is parked, to prevent distracted driving. The connected iPhone will be able to...
iOS 26 on Three iPhones

Hate iOS 26's Liquid Glass Design? Here's How to Tone It Down

Wednesday June 11, 2025 4:22 pm PDT by
iOS 26 features a whole new design material that Apple calls Liquid Glass, with a focus on transparency that lets the content on your display shine through the controls. If you're not a fan of the look, or are having trouble with readability, there is a step that you can take to make things more opaque without entirely losing out on the new look. Apple has multiple Accessibility options that ...
Mac Studio Feature

Apple Begins Selling Refurbished Mac Studio With M4 Max and M3 Ultra Chips at a Discount

Thursday June 12, 2025 10:14 am PDT by
Apple today added Mac Studio models with M4 Max and M3 Ultra chips to its online certified refurbished store in the United States, Canada, Japan, Singapore, and many European countries, for the first time since they were released in March. As usual for refurbished Macs, prices are discounted by approximately 15% compared to the equivalent new models on Apple's online store. Note that Apple's ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

McJobs Avatar
27 months ago
Deleted.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Johnny907 Avatar
27 months ago
Lol still no MacOS for iPad, multi-user support or a functional file manager that won’t dismount external drives halfway through a multi-gig file transfer.

“What’s a computer?” Not this thing.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
saucykash Avatar
27 months ago
Dont know what the craze is with widgets on the home screen. Just reminds me of old windows software when I had 6 clocks and 2 calculators on the home screen.
Score: 7 Votes (Like | Disagree)
t0rqx Avatar
27 months ago
All these new features but the calculator is nowhere to be seen. Oh wait...it probably needs the M3 to make all those advanced calculations...
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
and 4096 others like this Avatar
27 months ago
This shouldn’t be consider as whole generation update…

I mean, they created so powerful devices and they’re show wallpapers change?

It’s like putting F1 engine to road car and show people how nice cup holder car have :/
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)
eicca Avatar
27 months ago
Talk about underwhelming. My decrepit MacBook Pro from 2011 with a fraction of the computing power is still better at just getting basic things done than Apple’s “Most Versatile Device.”
Score: 6 Votes (Like | Disagree)