iPadOS 16 is here, and it comes with a host of tools that expand the capabilities of your iPad. With it, Apple has delivered a powerful feature that elevates the versatility and utility of its tablet to something approaching that of a laptop. New iOS-related features are an excellent addition to the ecosystem, and iPads dating back to 2018 have enjoyed relatively consistent improvements — at least until M1-exclusive features arrive later this year. The productivity-focused stage manager lacks polish, but that shouldn’t stop you from enjoying the rest of what this great operating system brings to the table.
What’s new in Apple’s iPadOS 16.3
Apple has released a new update to iPadOS 16: version 16.3. The update comes with notable improvements and security tweaks. One of the most prominent enhancements is the ability to use a physical security key as part of the two-factor authentication process when logging into an account from a new device.
Additionally, iOS 16.3 supports second-generation HomePods, improves Freeform app functionality and sees some Siri enhancements. Check out Apple’s support page for a full overview of the new features.
New iMessage and Shared Library features in iPadOS 16
Of course, there is some level of overlap between iPadOS 16 and iOS 16 , which you should expect given the similarities of the platforms. For example, both the iPad and iPhone are getting enhanced iMessage features, including new edit, undo, and mark-as-read features. If you send a message to another iPadOS 16 or iOS 16 user, you can long press on the sent message to undo the send or edit the message (within two minutes). In a nice touch, Apple allows you to view a message’s edit history.
You can also mark a message as unread by left-clicking or swiping the message. This will leave the message with a blue dot icon, indicating that the message is unread. Note that this feature only applies to you; the sender can still see that you received and read the message. Also, these features only work if you’re messaging someone who also uses iMessage.
iPadOS 16 now lets you create shared photo libraries so anyone with the proper permissions can view or download images. A new Shared Gallery icon (a two-person silhouette) located in the upper-right corner of the Photos app lets you quickly add any image to this well. The Camera app also has this icon, so any photo you take is instantly added to your Shared Gallery. It’s a great tool for capturing special moments that you want others to experience, like a graduation or birthday party. You can edit and change who has access to this gallery through the Photos menu in Settings.
LiveText and Visual Look Up come to iPadOS 16
iOS 16’s Live Text enhancements are also coming to iPadOS. This feature lets you highlight text in photos to copy, paste, translate or perform a quick online search. This feature also includes video. If you pause the video, Live Text recognizes the exact word you hover over the frame. However, there is a limit to the accuracy of this feature; Live Text has a hard time discerning words in blurry or fast-moving videos.
This impressive AI has been extended to identify the subject of a photo or video, not just text. This feature is called Visual Find, and it lets you long press on a topic to highlight it as a separate PNG independent of the background. You can copy and paste highlighted topics into other apps, iMessage, Mail or Notes. As someone who regularly uses photo editing software for these purposes, I’m grateful for this functionality being integrated into the operating system. My family hasn’t stopped getting stickers of my cat since the iPadOS beta launched in June.
Work-related features in iPadOS 16
The acclaimed Focus system overhaul is also coming to iPadOS 16. You can customize Focus Mode to suit your tasks or goals, adjusting how the app behaves when Focus Mode is active. For example, you can turn off email notifications when personal focus mode is active and never see after-hours emails again. It takes discipline to shake off the dreaded responsibility of ignoring work-related communications, but Focus helps drown out the noise.
If you use an iPad for work, you’ll be delighted to find sweet improvements to collaboration in iPadOS 16. In iPadOS 15 , you can share files with other people by sending them a copy. However, any changes made to these files will only exist on the user’s personal device. iPadOS 16 takes away that pain with free-form apps that grant permission to collaborate . This allows anyone with access to the project to edit, add or delete items in the file. If you’ve ever used Android 13’s Google Docs , this feature should sound familiar.
You’ll be happy to know that iPadOS now supports security keys for two-factor authentication. This is an extra layer of protection that helps keep your valuable information from prying eyes.
Finally, Apple corrected a glaring omission in iPadOS with a weather app for iPad owners. It’s hard to believe that iPads didn’t have this feature in the past, but it’s here, and a welcome addition.
Stage manager and hardware support
Stage Manager is a multitasking tool that revolutionizes the way you use your iPad. This is a much more in-depth and intuitive feature than the iPad’s basic swipe-over feature, as it offers Mac-like windows and window customization. Thankfully, Apple reversed its previous stance on stage managers, making the feature exclusive to the M1-chip iPad. Stage manager functionality has been extended to iPad Air (5th generation), iPad Pro 12.9-inch (3rd generation and later), and iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later).
The stage manager is not active by default, so you have to enable it from the control panel. When activated, the iPad’s display shows a tiled bar of apps on the left side of the screen, with the main app in the center of the screen. With new window resizing options, you can have up to four apps open in this workspace—any more, and the least-used apps are pushed into their own workspace. However, these smaller workspace tiles can be used to offset multiple apps, not just one. With some smart screen management, you can have four workspaces, with four apps grouped in each tile, and up to four apps on the main display. With 20 apps at your fingertips at any given time, that’s way ahead of Android 13 ‘s dual-app split-screen mode. Stage Manager is a great tool for organizing frequently used apps, and it offers iPad MacBook-like functionality .
The second major change is in the form of external display support. This allows you to use the monitor as a second iPad screen and add more applications to the Stage Manager workspace. Unfortunately, the feature is locked to iPads with Apple’s M1 chip (including the 5th-gen iPad Air; the 11-inch, 3rd-gen iPad Pro; and the 12.9-inch, 5th-gen iPad Pro). Note: Apple has removed this feature from iPadOS 16 (in beta), so it can iron out some wrinkles. External display support is planned for later this year.
Handy keyboard and right-click optimizations also add laptop-like functionality to your iPad. Previously, right-clicking opened the same menu as tapping or long-pressing (basically cut, copy, or paste tabs). In iPadOS 16, right-clicking on an empty screen area lets you create new folders or app-specific features based on what you’re using. In some cases, the new input doesn’t change functionality, but the menus change to a more Mac-like look. For example, Notepad now has Replace, Format, Find, Translate, and Share options. There are even new keyboard shortcuts like CMD+M (minimize) and Globe+F (fullscreen/zoom).
exciting new development
iPadOS 16 has many subtle tweaks and improvements that add up to create a more user-friendly experience. For example, the new keyboard and trackpad features alone give the iPad a satisfying laptop feel. And more coming soon. Developers can now use Apple’s new DriverKit to create dedicated drivers for the macOS and iPadOS platforms. For example, these drivers can enhance Thunderbolt by expanding the range of supported tablet accessories (and allowing developers to improve the functionality of existing tablets).
You can now better adjust your iPad’s display scaling. In the past, you could only switch between standard and scaled displays. In iPadOS 16, you can use the More Space option to tighten UI, icons, and font elements to provide a wide, desktop-style screen. This is especially useful when using stage managers.
Virtual memory swapping is now a feature on M1-powered iPads. Essentially, iPad uses empty storage space for memory functions when your device runs out of RAM capacity for apps and other items. The M1 chip houses both RAM and storage on the same chip, so the memory types can communicate efficiently and quickly. That said, there are limitations to this new technology. First, it’s exclusive to the M1 iPad. Also, this feature requires 128GB of storage, so you can’t use it on a 64GB iPad.
