Top Five New Features in iPadOS 17 - MacRumors
Skip to Content

Top Five New Features in iPadOS 17

While iPadOS 17 has adopted almost all of the features that are available in iOS 17, there are also several additions designed specifically for the larger display of the iPad. In our latest video, we've highlighted the best new features available for the ‌iPad‌ in the iPadOS 17 update.

  1. Updated Lock Screen - In iPadOS 17, the ‌iPad‌ gets the Lock Screen customization features that came to the iPhone with iOS 16. iPadOS 17 users can choose the look of the date and time, select different iPad-optimized wallpaper options, and have multiple Lock Screens that are tied to Focus modes.
  2. Widgets and Live Activities - Live Activities are now supported on the ‌iPad‌'s Lock Screen, so you can follow along with timers, food orders, sports games, and more. Widgets on the Lock Screen and the Home Screen are interactive, allowing you to turn on the lights, play a song, mark a reminder as complete, and more, directly from the widget with no need to open an app.
  3. Health App - The Health app is available on the ‌iPad‌ in iPadOS 17, showing health data in detail. The app is optimized for the ‌iPad‌'s display with an updated Favorites view and interactive charts for categories like Trends and Highlights.
  4. PDF & Notes Additions - Enhanced Autofill allows the ‌iPad‌ to identify fields in a PDF or scanned document so names, addresses, phone numbers, email addresses, and other information can be added from contact cards. There's also a new feature for collaborating on PDFs with others directly through the Notes app. The Notes app has been enhanced for PDFs, and PDFs will show up in full width for quick annotations with Apple Pencil.
  5. Stage Manager Updates - When using Stage Manager, windows can be freely resized, repositioned, and placed anywhere on the display. ‌Stage Manager‌ also supports an external camera like the one on the Studio Display for FaceTime and conference calls.

For more on what's new in the iPadOS 17 update, we have a dedicated iPadOS 17 roundup.

Related Forums: iOS 17, iPadOS 17

Popular Stories

Dynamic Island iPhone 18 Pro Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Prices Estimated Ahead of Apple Event Next Week

Thursday September 3, 2026 3:41 am PDT by
Less than a week before Apple debuts new iPhone 18 Pro models, research firm TrendForce has estimated the prices of the devices based on the latest hardware cost environment. TrendForce's price estimates compared to last year's models look like this: Model Starting Price Model Starting Price Change iPhone 17 Pro $1,099 iPhone 18 Pro $...
iPhone Handoff Feature

iOS 27 Introduces New 'iPhone Handoff' Feature

Wednesday September 2, 2026 12:35 pm PDT by
Apple has added a new "iPhone Handoff" feature to iOS 27 that will allow you to switch between two iPhones while using the same phone number on each device. This functionality was briefly mentioned during the WWDC 2026 keynote in June, on a slide that listed hundreds of new features coming in iOS 27 and corresponding software updates, but Apple never shared any further details at the time. ...
iPhone 18 Pro Dark Cherry Feature

iPhone 18 Pro Reportedly Starts With 256GB of Storage

Thursday September 3, 2026 9:22 am PDT by
While the iPhone 17 Pro has double the base storage compared to the iPhone 16 Pro, there will apparently be no further increase this year. Taiwanese research firm TrendForce today again reported that the iPhone 18 Pro models will start with 256GB of storage, like the iPhone 17 Pro models. Minimum storage capacities by model:iPhone 16 Pro: 128GB iPhone 17 Pro: 256GB iPhone 18 Pro...

Top Rated Comments

TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️ Avatar
42 months ago
Can't believe it's 2023 and still no stock iPad Calculator App for iPadOS.



Attachment Image
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Mrkevinfinnerty Avatar
42 months ago
Tim Cook 2015: "the iPad is the clearest expression of our vision of the future of personal computing".

2023: A new lock screen
Score: 27 Votes (Like | Disagree)
42 months ago
Multiuser-Support?

This would be a key feature.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Kylo83 Avatar
42 months ago
Funny how iPadOS is just the year before for iOS, they don’t really put any work into it, just last years iOS features
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Unami Avatar
42 months ago

Can't believe it's 2023 and still no stock iPad Calculator App for iPadOS.


I sometimes find my self typing "calc" into the search field and wondering why nothing happens before I remember.

Either there's some calculator-app-developer who's paying big money to Tim's retirement fond or they're just messing with us. How hard can it be to slap a more or less predefined GUI over some basic calculator functions already which are already defined in the programming language? That's something an intern who has never written a line of code before could do in a month. Do they think, people expect something like Mathematica as the standard calculator for an iPad?
Score: 14 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1284814 Avatar
42 months ago
Seriously, that’s it?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)