How to multitask in iPadOS 26

[nickdalzell1]

I noticed the little three dot icon is gone now, and I often watch YouTube with Messages to the right to keep up with my text messages conveniently without leaving YouTube, so how do I activate this new 'windowing' feature? It's on in Settings, but there's no discernible icon to toggle it. The three dot icon is gone, so when I'm in YouTube it's full-screen (the app not the video) but no way I can figure to open another app over top or to the side of it. I am using a Magic Keyboard and Pencil but no buttons or gestures seem to toggle the new windowing feature. What am I doing wrong? Settings has no help either. It shows a tiny little animation that doesn't convey what I'm supposed to do in order to toggle this feature, so I can no longer text while watching YouTube unless I leave YouTube.

 

[achappy]

In Windowed/Stage Manager mode apps open in full screen first. Just grab a corner or edge of the YouTube app and resize to where you want. If you are in Windowed mode, now you can just open up messages and then resize to where you want. Now whenever you open this apps, they will remember their size and position.

If using Stage Manager, it’s a little more complicated as opening up a new app puts it in a new Stage. You have to drag the app onto the the current stage and then resize.

 

[Michael0816]

Swipe down from the upper edge of the screen and tap on "Window", or tap and hold on the traffic light buttons.
Options you're looking for should be there. 👍

 

[nickdalzell1]

Where are the traffic light buttons? There's no icon or menu to tap! If I swipe down I just get Control or Notification Center. There's a little handle near the bottom right corner but I never tried interacting with it. How do you make the 'traffic light/windowed mode' thing happen?

All I want to do is have Messages in a little tile next to my YouTube app as before. Can't believe they disabled Slide-over like this.

I don't know how to GET to Windowed mode. I can switch between full-screen Messages and YouTube, or have a YouTube video in pop-out view while Messages is open but that is so 2017...I thought they wanted the iPad to be more Mac-like with this update? It seems instead it is just a 2017 Galaxy Tab S3 now.

 

[coffeeplease]

There's a little handle near the bottom right corner but I never tried interacting with it. How do you make the 'traffic light/windowed mode' thing happen?

If you drag the handle away from the edge, then it will resize the app into a window. This will show the traffic lights in the top left corner.

If you do this for youtube and messages then you can have them side by side.

You could also keep youtube full screen, and only put messages into a window. Then while in youtube, swipe up to reveal the dock and open messages. It will show messages on top of youtube.

 

[Michael0816]

You don't see a menu bar when swiping down from the upper edge? Maybe try it more in the middle. 🤔

 

[nickdalzell1]

When I swiped down I got Control Center or Notification Center. Notification Center if swiped down from left or centre, and Control Center if swiped down from right.

That handle gave me no reason to assume it had to do with multitasking. Perhaps I should send that as Feedback, because there is no reason the three dot icon couldn't do the same thing. At least the three dot menu icon can be interpreted as 'menu' while the handle on lower right corner invokes PS Vita-era 'go back to home screen' to me, especially since the gesture bar doesn't display.

 

[Michael0816]

Post a screenshot of an app running on your ipad.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Not sure why Siri got triggered, that's happened often since the beta. But the gesture bar has been GONE since the update, so I figured that 'handle' icon on lower right was the 'go home' or gesture bar's new version. I use the Magic TrackPad in the keyboard accessory to go home with multi-finger swipe so I don't smudge up the screen.

 

[Michael0816]

If you use the trackpad and you go with the cursor to the top of the screen and "above", it doesn't show the menu bar?

 

[nickdalzell1]

Haven't tried that. There is nothing on the screen to indicate doing that would accomplish anything. I don't do the 'tap and swipe all over to see what happens' act since Android 4.0. What does that handle even do? is it the new gesture bar? the go home action? Does it make a paper turn animation like the PS Vita if I tap and drag it?

Tried that and YES, I get menu bar and traffic lights. Wow, Apple, please make that an indicator I would notice, please. Now, if that's how you trigger Windowing mode, what does that handle do? Either way that has resolved my issue entirely. Thanks.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Haven't tried that. There is nothing on the screen to indicate doing that would accomplish anything. I don't do the 'tap and swipe all over to see what happens' act since Android 4.0. What does that handle even do? is it the new gesture bar? the go home action? Does it make a paper turn animation like the PS Vita if I tap and drag it?

Tried that and YES, I get menu bar and traffic lights. Wow, Apple, please make that an indicator I would notice, please. Now, if that's how you trigger Windowing mode, what does that handle do? Either way that has resolved my issue entirely. Thanks.

dragging the handle turns a full screen app into a window.
it’s really that simple, apps open in full screen, if you want them in a window, you drag the handle to wherever you want it.
you can also press and hold the green stoplight button to activate split screen, 1/3 mode or tiled mode.

 

[Andy_2341]

One could have just watched them use it in the WWDC. Perhaps they should include a tutorial when iPadOS26 goes public (not beta) though.

 

[nickdalzell1]

Apple once prided itself on its accessibility, a child or elderly person could understand a Mac or a 2007 iPhone. Today, it's a guessing game when they move the cheese for no reason. Heck, 3D touch failed because so many didn't know it was even a thing.

 

[Devyn89]

Apple once prided itself on its accessibility, a child or elderly person could understand a Mac or a 2007 iPhone. Today, it's a guessing game when they move the cheese for no reason. Heck, 3D touch failed because so many didn't know it was even a thing.

I would argue this new system is more accessible, it behaves like something you can drag around and resize with your finger or a cursor.

 

[nickdalzell1]

My first thought is it would take me back home (seeing as the gesture bar is gone now) possibly with a page-turn animation, similar to the PS Vita, or flip between open apps. Resize would be more fitting to a twin-headed arrow similar to when you hover over a window corner on a Mac. Or just leave the three-dot icon up top like it's been for a while now, there's no confusing it.

 

[dasjati]

Apple once prided itself on its accessibility, a child or elderly person could understand a Mac

When I got my first Mac (System 7) they had a whole app just to teach you how to use a mouse. When my dad got his first computer in his late 70s, it was not easy to explain for me what "files" are or "windows" or "applications".

It's easy to forget what is "intuitive" and what isn't. You find intuitive what you've already learned. It's not like there's some natural way.

One criticism I could see especially with the iPad is that Apple keeps changing how things work instead of doing it right the first time. The current system is their third try to implement windowing in iPadOS. I can see that being frustrating. But I personally think to drag that corner makes way more sense than these three meaningless dots they had before.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I just unlocked my iPad this morning, and expected it to have remembered the position of the YouTube and Messages app from last weekend. It didn't. (possible beta bug, no biggie) but I couldn't figure out how to snap them side by side as I did in iPad OS 18. I probably spent 30 minutes clicking traffic lights, every damned option and all I could manage was having them overlap. I think I accidentally clicked on 'quarters' and it finally did what I wanted it to, having YouTube and Messages on the screen at the same time.

This is supposed to be an improvement?! Why the extra steps? With Slide-over, I just tapped or clicked the three dots up top and it offered the ability to snap two apps in one click. I'm sending feedback, this is NOT an improvement. Dragging the corner did nothing to snap both apps side-by-side on the screen at the same time. Now it's three or four extra steps!

I also hate when Walmart rearranges stuff in the store once I remembered where everything was, making me spend another hour there than normal to figure out where everything is now. I HATE that. Likewise, I HATE when UI designers needlessly move the cheese. Liquid Glass? I love it. But moving things around needlessly? No thanks. I HATE having to relearn something I've used the same way every day.

 

[colonel179]

Slide over needs to come back. In iPad OS 18 you have three options: OFF, Split Screen & Slide Over and Stage Manager.

Did Apple really need to go with the OFF option for iPad OS 26 instead of leaving the SC &SO? That move is so petty from them!

Then, they advertise is as "If you want to use your iPad with full screen as always, you can still do that" Hell, NO ONE that uses an iPad has the option in OFF, they either have SC &S O or Stage Manager, but I could bet my life NOT A SINGLE IPAD IS IN OFF!

 

[achappy]

I just unlocked my iPad this morning, and expected it to have remembered the position of the YouTube and Messages app from last weekend. It didn't. (possible beta bug, no biggie) but I couldn't figure out how to snap them side by side as I did in iPad OS 18. I probably spent 30 minutes clicking traffic lights, every damned option and all I could manage was having them overlap. I think I accidentally clicked on 'quarters' and it finally did what I wanted it to, having YouTube and Messages on the screen at the same time.

This is supposed to be an improvement?! Why the extra steps? With Slide-over, I just tapped or clicked the three dots up top and it offered the ability to snap two apps in one click. I'm sending feedback, this is NOT an improvement. Dragging the corner did nothing to snap both apps side-by-side on the screen at the same time. Now it's three or four extra steps!

I also hate when Walmart rearranges stuff in the store once I remembered where everything was, making me spend another hour there than normal to figure out where everything is now. I HATE that. Likewise, I HATE when UI designers needlessly move the cheese. Liquid Glass? I love it. But moving things around needlessly? No thanks. I HATE having to relearn something I've used the same way every day.

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So you are basically saying that you hate improvements. It took me 10 seconds to figure out but maybe because I'm used to using Windowed OSes and not locked in to my preconceived notions of how I want things to work. The 3 dots never made sense from a UI perspective.

Open one app, open another. Drag (finger or trackpad) one app to the side you want and then drag edge over to other app. They "connect" with a little control (same as iPadOS18 Split Screen) that then allows you to just slide that to change the side of each window. The windows can be vertically any size you want.

 

[papbot]

When I swiped down I got Control Center or Notification Center. Notification Center if swiped down from left or centre, and Control Center if swiped down from right.

As soon as I enable windows, I normally don’t use it, I get the dragging handle at the bottom right of the Safari screen as I’m typing this reply here. Swiping down from the center top of the screen brings the macOS-like menu bar with the traffic lights down. I have to go to the far left of the screen, essentially where the time and date are, to swipe down to get the lockscreen/Notification Center down. Anything between far left and far right brings down those menu items and traffic lights. For me Split View was all I needed, windows doesn’t add any utility for me, though I realize it does for others. But that’s why I rarely enable it. This is all on my 13 M4 iPad Pro.

 

[nickdalzell1]

So you are basically saying that you hate improvements. It took me 10 seconds to figure out but maybe because I'm used to using Windowed OSes and not locked in to my preconceived notions of how I want things to work. The 3 dots never made sense from a UI perspective.

Open one app, open another. Drag (finger or trackpad) one app to the side you want and then drag edge over to other app. They "connect" with a little control (same as iPadOS18 Split Screen) that then allows you to just slide that to change the side of each window. The windows can be vertically any size you want.

Dragging them didn't do anything for me except inadvertently go in an out of full-screen, or overlapping, or having only one app in focus at a time (not on screen at the same time). The only option that provided me what I wanted was '4-quarters' that you get when you click on the right-most traffic light (which resembles the Mac's full-screen traffic light, with the same symbol on mouse-over, adding to the confusion) and on the menu that pops out, scroll down to where '4-quarters' is, and it then puts both apps in a grid that adds that control and you then spend another minute dragging them and resizing them to be on the screen, one to the left, on to the right. It's extra steps, confusing, and time consuming all at once.

It's not like they added anything that wasn't there before, just made it harder and more frustrating for older folks such as myself. Before, you clicked the little three-dot menu, it would let you open another app either in split-screen or in slide-over (which is the same as windowing mode, it lets you drag it around). I don't see how this confusion fixes anything rather than change it for change's sake.

I don't hate 'improvements' I hate anything that instead of fixing something, it just 'rearranges the aisles at Walmart' again.

 

[Andy_2341]

Dragging them didn't do anything for me except inadvertently go in an out of full-screen, or overlapping, or having only one app in focus at a time (not on screen at the same time). The only option that provided me what I wanted was '4-quarters' that you get when you click on the right-most traffic light (which resembles the Mac's full-screen traffic light, with the same symbol on mouse-over, adding to the confusion) and on the menu that pops out, scroll down to where '4-quarters' is, and it then puts both apps in a grid that adds that control and you then spend another minute dragging them and resizing them to be on the screen, one to the left, on to the right. It's extra steps, confusing, and time consuming all at once.

It's not like they added anything that wasn't there before, just made it harder and more frustrating for older folks such as myself. Before, you clicked the little three-dot menu, it would let you open another app either in split-screen or in slide-over (which is the same as windowing mode, it lets you drag it around). I don't see how this confusion fixes anything rather than change it for change's sake.

I don't hate 'improvements' I hate anything that instead of fixing something, it just 'rearranges the aisles at Walmart' again.

As an ipad mini user, this is far from change for the sake of change. I have access to stage manager now, and can fit 3 old-school iphone sized windows or 4 slightly overlapped windows instead of two and a slide over. This is a major, major productivity enhancement for me.

So, there are things that weren't there before. There's nothing really that difficult about it if you've ever used a mac. It works the same 95% of the time.

As for quick tiling, just take the right corner of the window and throw it to the corner you want and it'll automatically go split screen. Don't physically drag it, throw it. Not physically dragging like a mac is one of the differences.

 

[nickdalzell1]

I do use a Mac. Actually still got a PowerBook G4 and a modern MacBook Air M3. But the traffic lights in iPadOS work completely different than they do in macOS.

For example: Clicking the right-most traffic light in macOS makes an app go to full-screen on Desktop 2(or 3 or 4 whatever) and in some apps, maximizes the window. In iPadOS, that button produces a context menu of options, completely different from macOS.

macOS also has no little handle on each window that to me translates to 'go back home, flip back a page as in a PlayStation Vita'

macOs if you drag a window to the edge of the screen/desktop it automatically snaps to a specific view or produces a context menu to snap specific ways. iPadOS you're lucky if it does anything at all, or produces your intended result. I just wanted a quick method to lock YouTube and Messages side by side in the screen at once, and they made it take three/four extra steps and that's if you know what to do. There's no easy way, it doesn't say 'snap side by side' you have to assume the 'four quarters' will do it, because to me that involves four apps, not two. It's difficult to understand now. Also, an iPad ain't a Mac. It's a tablet. A tablet and laptop are for two entirely different purposes. Perhaps they should have kept it as an iPad Pro feature intead. I also don't subscribe to the idea that a smartphone can ever replace a computer, because to me that's as impractical as typing up a 300 page novel on a BlackBerry (or that scene in the movie RV where Robin Williams struggles to type a business paper in his BlackBerry because his laptop got stolen, and spends half the night struggling to find a signal to send it afterward).

Thankfully as of Beta 3 it remembers where it's at, so when I go back home or open something else and return to YouTube (or Messages) it snaps back to the side by side as it used to, but I would like if they kept the two icons together in the dock (used to be they'd show split view apps as two icons in one place in the dock indicating they're in split view, now it's just one icon for one app; you have to hope and pray it goes back to split view)

I don't want nothin' to do with Stage Manager as that looks even more complicated than it is currently.