When Apple put its M1 processor on the 2021 iPad Pro and iPad Air, I couldn’t help but wonder what all this power was for. The A-Series chips that Apple had used in previous models worked very well with iPadOS, so seeing the same processor found on computers like the MacBook Air and Mac Mini was a surprise.
With iPadOS 16, which I’ve been testing in beta for the past few weeks, it’s now obvious why Apple put the M1 on its latest iPads. It enables some important new features around multitasking that make the iPad much more flexible and allows for completely new workflows – things that iPad users have been asking for for years. Apple calls this new multitasking scheme Stage Manager.
And while Stage Manager will only work on all three M1-powered iPad models, it’s easily the most significant change to iPadOS in years, as well as the most notable feature currently available on the iPad 16 beta. As usual, a number of features that Apple announced at WWDC last month are not yet fully enabled in beta software.
Resized and overlay application windows are the most obvious advantage Stage Manager offers, but Vivek Bhardwaj of Apple’s Worldwide Product Marketing told Engadget in an interview that the company considers Stage Manager much more than, according to its words, “a small iteration.” about multitasking. “The broader goal was to figure out how to make apps more suitable for the iPad.” When we took a step back, we realized that there’s an opportunity to have apps running not only on the iPad, but on an external display, to be able to do multiple tasks with multiple applications and have arrangements and flexibility like users had never had before. “, said Bhardwaj.
Despite the bugs I found with iPadOS 16 on a 2021 iPad Pro (more on that later), Bhardwaj’s assessment seems accurate. Stage Manager makes the iPad feel much closer to a Mac than ever, while retaining the simplicity for which the iPad is known. This is shown with some limitations: you can have up to four apps “on stage” at a time, so you can’t stack as many windows and apps as you want. But it’s a reasonable limitation: even on a 12.9-inch iPad Pro, having more than three apps running in a single stage can feel cramped. But because iPadOS keeps four more recent stages on the left (each of which can also contain up to four apps), it’s easier than ever to jump between a bunch of different apps.
The story goes on
For example, I’m writing this story in a Pages document, with an instance of Notes running next to it. I have Slack and Messages running in a communication-focused stage, a few Safari windows and my email is easily accessible via the recent apps view on the left. I can also access any app in my dock with a single tap or use Spotlight to search for any app on my iPad if I need something that is not available. There’s definitely a learning curve here, but it’s certainly a more powerful and flexible way to use an iPad than we’ve ever had before. Significantly, Apple offers iPad users complexity and customization at the expense of simplicity, which the company usually avoids.
This is doubly true when you connect an iPad to an external display. Previously, you only got a mirror image of what’s on your iPad screen, but now the external screen is a completely separate workspace. With Stage Manager, you can have a different set of apps running on this monitor, making using an iPad with another screen significantly more useful than ever, and another example of why Stage Manager requires an M1 powered iPad.
iPadOS 16 Stage Manager
That said, in its unfinished form, Stage Manager is a bit rough at the edges. When I used my iPad with an external display, the system crashed and returned me to the home screen quite a few times, which obviously kills productivity gains. There are also quirks with applications that behave unpredictably when they resize their windows. I would expect these things to improve when iPadOS 16 is officially released this fall, but keep in mind that the beta still looks a lot like a beta.
Stage Manager, which also comes to macOS Ventura, offers a clear example of how Apple differentiates its platforms even when they share features. “On the iPad, we looked at how we optimized [Stage Manager] for multitouch? ”Bhardwaj said. perfect layout for pixels. “This caused a lot of automation as to how windows interact with each other and where they are placed when you add applications to a scenario or resize them.
On the Mac, however, the behavior is different because of the user’s expectations about the platform and the tools you use to interact with it, specifically a mouse instead of your fingers. “People really need detailed control because that’s the behavior and use of Mac,” Bhardwaj said.
Before Apple showed Stage Manager at WWDC, the rest of the iPadOS 16 preview was dominated by new collaboration features. In a world that has been rebuilt by the COVID-19 pandemic, remote work is more common than ever, and Apple is clearly trying to make the iPad even more of a productivity tool than ever before. And it does so using its incredibly popular Messages app as an entry point.
Apple’s new collaboration API means you can share things like a Pages, Numbers, or Keynote document with a group using Messaging, and recipients can work on the document in real time. Previously, this only sent a copy of the document, but now everyone in your group will be able to make changes, keeping track of updates in the message thread. You can also jump directly from a document to a FaceTime call with your group. “Communication is often the first place we start ideation,” Bhardwaj said. “When you watch Messages or FaceTime, our customers use them for a long time; it’s such an integral part of the way our ensembles talk to family, friends, teammates, and teammates. ”
Google and Microsoft have been collaborating in real time for years, and it’s not new to Apple’s iWork suite either. What’s new is the deep integration with Messages and FaceTime. This may not be enough to attract users who are already committed to using Google Docs or Microsoft Office, but Apple’s new collaboration features aren’t limited to just those apps. For example, you can share a tab group from Safari or share content from Notes and Reminders. And Apple is also expanding SharePlay, which it introduced last year as a way to watch videos or listen to music with friends, also in Messaging. Plus, you can now use SharePlay with games, so you can compete with a friend on FaceTime.
IPadOS Shared Tab Groups 16
Perhaps most importantly, though, Apple is making a collaboration API available to third-party developers. Offering a more perfect way to collaborate with Messages, one of the most crucial applications offered by Apple, could be an important new tool. “For developers, they want to know the user where they are, where the conversation is going,” Bhardwaj said. “For a lot of people, this is in apps like Messages and FaceTime. So this is exciting for a developer because a conversation that had already occurred organically can now be a great starting point for your app.” We won’t know if this happens until after iPadOS 16 is available, of course, but the ubiquity of messages on Apple’s hardware makes it a logical tool for developers.
Freeform, a new application that is unfortunately not available in the iPad 16 beta, is perhaps the best example of how Apple sees cross-communication and collaboration. From a FaceTime call, you can create a new dashboard for free, which is a space to which everyone you invite can contribute, whether it’s adding text, web links, documents, or notes and drawings made with an Apple Pencil. Each contributor stands out as they add things to the space, and you can tap someone’s name in the share menu to see exactly what they’re doing. Adding more material is simply a matter of moving away and choosing a free space.
iPadOS 16 Freeform
The easy comparison is that this is a virtual scoreboard, not something meant for a formal presentation, but a good place to brainstorm. While Freeform will also be available for iPhones and Macs, it looks like it fits exclusively to the iPad. It looks like it will be navigated more easily using a large touch screen, and Apple Pencil users will probably find a good place to use their stylus.
Naturally, there are many new features in iPadOS 16 that are shared with macOS Ventura and iOS 16. The Mail app now supports email scheduling, undo sending, and a much improved search interface, while the Messaging app allows you to edit and undo the submission as well. The Photos app now includes a shared photo library, with new images and edits that are automatically synced between family members. And there’s an official weather app, about 12 years after Apple shipped its first iPad! (Aside from the jokes, the Weather app is very nice, with playable modules that show a lot of detail in various conditions.)
In many ways, it’s a typical iPadOS update – there are a lot of new features, most of which are nice to have but won’t fundamentally change the way you use an iPad. But the combination of features like Stage Manager, Freeform and new collaboration tools indicate how Apple aims to make the iPad more suitable for productivity than before. We’ll have to wait until iPadOS 16 is finalized and released this fall to judge the success of this update. But after feeling that the iPad hardware surpassed what its software could do, we’re glad to see that Apple made some major changes to iPadOS this year.