iPadOS 15 : we are stuck with 6x5 apps on home screen now?

[bradbomb]

Here’s mine currently.

When you first turn your ipad to portrait, the icons may not re-arrange themselves in a manner that you want, but you can then proceed to arrange the icons again in portrait mode and iPadOS will remember the unique layouts for landscape and portrait.

So you will likely need to edit your homescreen twice. One for each orientation.

That Upper Left Widget, what App is that and if you have apps in there, do there notification number show in that? I think for me that type of widget could solve the dense layout disappearing

 

[Abazigal]

That Upper Left Widget, what App is that and if you have apps in there, do there notification number show in that? I think for me that type of widget could solve the dense layout disappearing

It’s the launcher app. No notifications, and apps do open a little slower (because it first opens the launcher app, then launches the app).

‎Launcher with Multiple Widgets

‎Launcher is the original app launching widget -- and still the best! Launcher 5 allows you to customize your iPhone or iPad in ways you never could before. On iOS 16+ Launcher brings its powerful widgets to your iPhone Lock Screen in addition to our existing Home Screen widgets. Top 10...

apps.apple.com

But yup, I am using it as a workaround around the sparse app layout issue with iPadOS.

 

[bradbomb]

It’s the launcher app. No notifications, and apps do open a little slower (because it first opens the launcher app, then launches the app).

‎Launcher with Multiple Widgets

‎Launcher is the original app launching widget -- and still the best! Launcher 5 allows you to customize your iPhone or iPad in ways you never could before. On iOS 16+ Launcher brings its powerful widgets to your iPhone Lock Screen in addition to our existing Home Screen widgets. Top 10...

apps.apple.com

But yup, I am using it as a workaround around the sparse app layout issue with iPadOS.

Well I guess I have to start planning my home screens for the eventual switchover to 15 as it looks like this isn't going to be "fixed" and is just a new feature

 

[Abazigal]

Well I guess I have to start planning my home screens for the eventual switchover to 15 as it looks like this isn't going to be "fixed" and is just a new feature

It’s very likely a casualty of widgets taking up a 6x4 grid on the iPad, and Apple mapping 1 app icon to 1 small widget.

It’s also nice being able to stack widgets (the middle tv widget also has music and game centre). The extra large ones look gorgeous, but don’t seem to offer any added functionality. Everything’s just blown up.

Unless Apple is willing to go back and completely rethink how widgets work, I don’t see this changing.

 

[steve62388]

It’s the launcher app. No notifications, and apps do open a little slower (because it first opens the launcher app, then launches the app).

‎Launcher with Multiple Widgets

‎Launcher is the original app launching widget -- and still the best! Launcher 5 allows you to customize your iPhone or iPad in ways you never could before. On iOS 16+ Launcher brings its powerful widgets to your iPhone Lock Screen in addition to our existing Home Screen widgets. Top 10...

apps.apple.com

But yup, I am using it as a workaround around the sparse app layout issue with iPadOS.

Just been trying this out. Somewhat confusing interface setting it up, and I can’t figure out if some features aren’t working because I’m dumb, I need to pay for the premium features or there are issues with iOS 15.

 

[Anuba]

This is the buttonless iPod Shuffle of iPadOS versions: Every version before it was an improvement, then suddenly came a dud so ill-conceived that Apple eventually had to crawl back to the previous iteration with their tail between their legs.

I never regretted installing a public beta before, but that was until this one did to my home screen what firebombing did to Dresden. This is the first OS update on anything Apple that I will not be installing the second it becomes available, but rather hold off installing for as long as I can. Never happened once since I switched to Apple in 2007.

 

[rooska]

I just updated to iPadOS 15 Beta 5 and the 6x5 horizontal 5x6 vertical configuration is back!

 

[domodazzzle]

I just updated to iPadOS 15 Beta 5 and the 6x5 horizontal 5x6 vertical configuration is back!

Please post a screenshot in portrait orientation if you could. I just updated to PB4 and find the layout changes horrible!

 

[rooska]

Screenshots:

 

[domodazzzle]

Screenshots:

View attachment 1817048

View attachment 1817050

View attachment 1817051

Really helpful - thanks

 

[KittyKatta]

I just updated to iPadOS 15 Beta 5 and the 6x5 horizontal 5x6 vertical configuration is back!

... until you add a widget.

0 Widgets = 6 x 5
1 Widget = 6 x 4


It's not perfect but it does make me hopeful that Apple will bring back a "Classic Mode" with Today View.

 

[tomtad]

And presumably dissapears when you drag on a widget?

 

[Channan]

Praise Jesus! Hallelujah!!!

 

[yabeweb]

I just want a “legacy” option, the new layout is dumb.
So much wasted space on the 12”.

 

[junebug1]

I’m actually shocked Apple gave us back the 6x5 Home Screen and are even allowing it to stay that way with the Larger Icon option. I would love to have the Today View back but for now I’ll take this as a compromise and just move to having a second page made up purely of widgets.

 

[Channan]

Finally updated. Guess I wasn’t paying much attention to the posts. I’m happy we got the extra row back in landscape, but I don’t like how the apps don’t stay in the same location relative to other apps when you turn it to portrait.

But this is way better than what we had in previous updates.

 

[yabeweb]

Finally updated. Guess I wasn’t paying much attention to the posts. I’m happy we got the extra row back in landscape, but I don’t like how the apps don’t stay in the same location relative to other apps when you turn it to portrait.

But this is way better than what we had in previous updates.

Yes, but still worse than what we had in iPad OS 14

 

[BigBlur]

Finally updated. Guess I wasn’t paying much attention to the posts. I’m happy we got the extra row back in landscape, but I don’t like how the apps don’t stay in the same location relative to other apps when you turn it to portrait.

But this is way better than what we had in previous updates.

App icons now remember their position in both orientations, rather than always being in the same order as seen in previous versions of iOS. For example, you could have the Settings app in the upper-right corner in portrait, and have it in the lower left corner in landscape.

1. Go to edit/jiggly mode.
2. Arrange your app icons to your liking.
3. Rotate the screen and arrange your app icons to your liking again.
4. Done

 

[Channan]

Yes, but still worse than what we had in iPad OS 14

Yeah, that was my point.

App icons now remember their position in both orientations, rather than always being in the same order as seen in previous versions of iOS. For example, you could have the Settings app in the upper-right corner in portrait, and have it in the lower left corner in landscape.

1. Go to edit/jiggly mode.
2. Arrange your app icons to your liking.
3. Rotate the screen and arrange your app icons to your liking again.
4. Done

Oh, that’s neat. But I’d rather them just stay in the same order and have the same layout in both orientations.

 

[yegon]

It’s thanks to this thread I learned you can go back to 6x5 if you have no widgets. BYE BYE WIDGETS!

I only ever use 2 anyway, the battery widget and the 4 button Shotcuts widget, both of which are now on the lock screen/left of home.

It’s pathetic it’s come to this, but heyho. My expectations of iPadOS have never been lower since WWDC, honestly the only appreciable difference that has improved my experience is the handling of multitasking via keyboard shortcuts. Otherwise, it’s a laughable update, doubly so given the power of the latest iPads.

 

[Isengardtom]

I disagree. Other than the widget / grid placement which could still improve I like the new multitasking : the gestures, the menu at the top and the keyboard shortcuts. They’ve really made my workflows a lot better

I also like the safari update.

 

[yegon]

Yeah, that’s what I meant, the handling of windows/multitasking is much better.

 

[m4cf4g]

Now they gave us the option to make the icons bigger, but they are still tightly squeezed together instead of evenly spaced out. #fail

 

[return2sendai]

That Upper Left Widget, what App is that and if you have apps in there, do there notification number show in that? I think for me that type of widget could solve the dense layout disappearing

I tried the same “Launcher with Multiple Widgets” app for the same reason. But the free version only has a very limited number of apps you can add to a Launcher. I’m not going to pay for it until I know if I can add any of my apps to it. In the free version, I can’t even add Pages or Numbers, let alone more obscure apps I regularly use. So basically, Launcher is a very limited workaround to a very limited Home Screen design. No real gain.

 

[return2sendai]

It’s very likely a casualty of widgets taking up a 6x4 grid on the iPad, and Apple mapping 1 app icon to 1 small widget.

It’s also nice being able to stack widgets (the middle tv widget also has music and game centre). The extra large ones look gorgeous, but don’t seem to offer any added functionality. Everything’s just blown up.

Unless Apple is willing to go back and completely rethink how widgets work, I don’t see this changing.

Not really. Apple just has to allow more apps to be added to the Home Screen. Widgets work well on the iPhone because they are scaled to fit with the grid of app icons. But on the iPad, they are the wrong sizes and the app icons seem to be floating in some no-man’s land between the iPhone and the iPad. Apple needs to give us the option to add more app icons, which are correctly scaled to the widgets, or widgets correctly scaled to the app icons. As it stands, iPadOS 15 is just a blown up version of iOS which does not work on the iPad screen size and orientation. Placing widgets where you wanted was one of the big reasons to upgrade. But the cost is too high and there are no third party fixes out there yet. Come the official release, hopefully we will see some third party solutions as developers do what Apple should have done. Lazy software design on a cracking M1 machine is Apple all over.