iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

[ofarlig]

You do not have to resize the app… if an app is in full screen, grab the top area of the app and swipe down it would automatically go into (floating) window mode then do the side-by-side action.

But then again… I do agree. It does take more action than previously did under iPadOS 18. Before you could grab the second app and place it in the far left or right area. However, you gain more actions under iPadOS 26.

Yeah that is the flicking I’m talking about, it seems very inconsistent with the touchpad but works with fingers.

I would say it makes sense that if you create a half window while you have a full screen one open it should automatically put the one you had open to the other half.

 

[Young Turk]

Question about Preview on iPad OS 26: When opening an email with a PDF attached, previously I could tap the attachment, the PDF would open, I could select the pen icon, and sign the document with my Apple Pencil.

Now with iPad OS 26, tapping the attachment opens the Preview Finder - I don't see a way to actually open the document as I could before. Interestingly, iOS 26 doesn't behave this way - tapping an email attachment opens the document, with the pen icon etc.

 

[TracerAnalog]

I don’t mean bugs. I expect bugs in a beta.

I mean the UX is a hot mess.

The entire multitasking system is now so convoluted and cumbersome that I am truly worried about how on Earth this was approved. I guarantee the people working on these systems did not want them to go live – this reeks of c-suite pushing things live to appease shareholders and stock analysts.

I really hope some on the leadership team are able to steer the ship back to reliability and ease-of-use focused UX.

This is not a “Jobs would never have done this” kind of post. This is a frustration post at how far Apple has strayed from the values which made them one of the top players in tech - those values, and the products they drive were not built my one man.

I think Apple jumped the shark. Time to repair this breaking organization and get back to fundamentals.

Customer experience, reliability, usability, and functionality.

Useless post. Share your detailed complaints so we can discuss.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

Fair point. Admittedly, I haven’t spent much time with it yet. I am frustrated, but will give it a fair shot and see if my perspective changes.

So we get to post #25 and finally get to what the first post should have been, along with a less clickbaity headline.

 

[tweaknmod]

So we get to post #25 and finally get to what the first post should have been, along with a less clickbaity headline.

My initial post was not ideal, as I should have included more detail, and the fact that these were initial impressions. That said, it still contains points I wanted to communicate and later discuss.

The title is a short summary of my thoughts on the topic of the post. I’m sorry you feel manipulated.

I came here to vent and to discuss the state of the iPadOS beta. How I do that from my end is up to me, so long as I’m doing so respectfully and within the forum rules.

I can’t say this experience is encouraging me to continue to participate in these forums. I doubt you’ll care, based on your comment, but the sentiment remains.

 

[achappy]

I feel like the majority of these type of posts are from people who’ve just installed the beta and spent the grand total of 5 minutes with it and are just quick reacting to change they haven’t given the chance to adjust to. I think the changes to iPadOS are great now that I’ve had a few weeks of using the betas and getting used to things. If you’d asked me in the first few hours after first installing 26, I would have said I disliked it and it’s clunky.

Agree. I jumped on the Dev Beta 2 and after about a day fell in love with all of the changes. So much that it convinced me to go ahead and update my M1 12.9 to an M4 and gave the M1 to my son who’s going to college in the fall. He was on the 2018 iPP and used it for 4 years in High School but I don’t think iPadOS 27 will support it so bit the bullet now. He’s an iPad user and can’t stand using a laptop since it doesn’t have touch. I was on the fence about going to an M4 MacBook Air until I tried iPadOS 26.

For me Stages now are equivalent to desktops when I had my iMac. I group apps in stages and can quickly switch between them.

 

[Jumpthesnark]

My initial post was not ideal, as I should have included more detail, and the fact that these were initial impressions. That said, it still contains points I wanted to communicate and later discuss.

The title is a short summary of my thoughts on the topic of the post. I’m sorry you feel manipulated.

I came here to vent and to discuss the state of the iPadOS beta. How I do that from my end is up to me, so long as I’m doing so respectfully and within the forum rules.

I can’t say this experience is encouraging me to continue to participate in these forums. I doubt you’ll care, based on your comment, but the sentiment remains.

Not to put you on the defensive, but your initial post was hardly "initial impressions" of the OS. You almost gave us something concrete to work with when you mentioned multitasking, almost. But you never gave an example, instead the last half of that sentence, and the entire rest of the post, was about Apple leadership, knowing somehow that the people who worked on it felt that it wasn't ready to go live but leadership pushed it out the door, Apple jumping the shark, etc. Where's the useful information?

I have an iPad and when I saw the headline I thought there would be some valid, concrete information here that would give me insight into the features headed our way that another user had some specific issues with.

So yes, I feel manipulated by your title. It doesn't accurately reflect your post. Not a big deal, don't worry about it. But this place is so full of pointless ranting that I was disappointed to see that's what this thread was, too.

I'm not going to give you advice on what your title or post should have been, that's not my place. But you posted what you posted, and you've seen the comments. I'm not the only one who faulted your post for lacking specifics. It's been called a "generic rant" and more. Spend some more time with the beta and let us know what you think about it.

There have been many times in this forum when I've written a reply (or wanted to start a thread) and then before I posted it I asked myself "is this helping anyone? Is this furthering the discussion here or is it a reflexive rant that only I care about? Who really needs to see this?"

Sometimes we need to write something more than someone else needs to read it. Not a popular opinion on the internet, I know.

I hope you send your specific feedback on the beta to Apple, when you have it. Best of luck with the beta.

 

[LightProtector]

You’re absolutely right - genuinely.

I was just annoyed and wanted to rant. I should have waited until I had something to add to the conversation.

I’m going to jot down some notes and will reply to you once I have that together.

Bro genuinely owned up to it, I wasn't expecting that.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

I don’t run beta’s, and I have never understood why someone running a beta copy can complain. Observe problems, yes but complain about problems, isn’t why it is a beta?

You do understand that something like a Public Beta is far enough into the beta stages that design of UI is pretty much set. He was complaining how things are now designed to work, not how buggy it was. Of course we expect bugs, but if you don't like how much harder it is to do what were simple tasks in the last version, it seems reasonable to complain.

 

[DEMinSoCAL]

Useless post. Share your detailed complains so we can discuss.

Why bother? You'll just criticize his complaints. Saying "useless post" doesn't sound like you're open to discussion.

 

[aperfectcircle]

Agree. I jumped on the Dev Beta 2 and after about a day fell in love with all of the changes. So much that it convinced me to go ahead and update my M1 12.9 to an M4 and gave the M1 to my son who’s going to college in the fall. He was on the 2018 iPP and used it for 4 years in High School but I don’t think iPadOS 27 will support it so bit the bullet now. He’s an iPad user and can’t stand using a laptop since it doesn’t have touch. I was on the fence about going to an M4 MacBook Air until I tried iPadOS 26.

For me Stages now are equivalent to desktops when I had my iMac. I group apps in stages and can quickly switch between them.

“it doesn’t have touch” is giving me such “what’s a computer” vibes. I find that so fascinating. What is your son going to study in college? Do you think an iPad will take him through his full course of study? It does feel like we are at the point where an iPad setup can absolutely work for a lot of work and study use cases. I do a lot of work with boards of listed companies, and it has probably been at least a year since I last sat in a board meeting where a director was using a laptop. They’re all using iPads!

 

[TracerAnalog]

Why bother? You'll just criticize his complaints. Saying "useless post" doesn't sound like you're open to discussion.

Not sure how you came to that conclusion. My pet peeve about iPadOS 26: I don't like the way the Lock Screen opens up to an empty wallpaper that 'pops in' the home screen after sliding all the way to the top. I'd rather see the apps appear 'from below the surface'. See? Something we can discuss. Maybe you have another better idea.
Just stating: 'it all sucks' is not a very good starting point for discussions.

But hey, that's just my opinion.

 

[wagszilla]

I haven't used it a ton but I like it so far. Windowed mode is really nice.

 

[achappy]

“it doesn’t have touch” is giving me such “what’s a computer” vibes. I find that so fascinating. What is your son going to study in college? Do you think an iPad will take him through his full course of study? It does feel like we are at the point where an iPad setup can absolutely work for a lot of work and study use cases. I do a lot of work with boards of listed companies, and it has probably been at least a year since I last sat in a board meeting where a director was using a laptop. They’re all using iPads!

He’s going to start out in Physics with the desire to move into mechanical engineering. It’s unclear if the iPad will end up being enough and we said we would revisit his needs once he got into coursework but initial requirements don’t show any specialized apps or a specific laptop requirement.

It’s funny as you could do a case study on how we both use the iPad differently. I fully utilize the trackpad and keyboard for all kinds of window management and flow since it’s basically a laptop replacement. So if I need to resize an app or click a button, switch tabs, etc, I use the trackpad and mouse. I’m so used to all of the trackpad gestures and keyboard shortcuts. He’s the complete opposite. He only touches the keyboard when he needs to type and rarely even touches the trackpad. Uses his finger for everything which is why a MacBook wasn’t even an option for him unless it’s required.

 

[Wieslawo]

Well, for me, it's a bit like "Steve wouldn't do that." He left Apple in a duopoly for a reason, knowing that Cook himself lacked any vision, but Cook would run the company perfectly, while Ive would run his vision without any control, without considering the bottom line. We ended up with Apple, which lacks a good design department, and Cook, who has no understanding of design or product.

Regarding the iPad. They have powerful processors and they threw them in because they couldn't think of anything else. The iPad was never intended to be a computer, and they don't understand the original intent either. It's not a problem to deviate from it; the problem is that they have no idea what they want to do. Stage Manager is for a select few, not for everyone, but rather new windows and menus. They're testing; they have no idea what they're doing.

The author of the post is right – it's not about a specific feature, but about the overall feeling of disarray and a lack of a central idea. And some things might be appealing, but does it somehow obscure the vision behind the new systems? Because the glass theme is definitely not a redesign. The settings are exactly as they were, the system is identical. If it weren't for the glass skin, it would be iPadOS 19.

 

[amaze1499]

I don’t mean bugs. I expect bugs in a beta.

I mean the UX is a hot mess.

The entire multitasking system is now so convoluted and cumbersome that I am truly worried about how on Earth this was approved. I guarantee the people working on these systems did not want them to go live – this reeks of c-suite pushing things live to appease shareholders and stock analysts.

I really hope some on the leadership team are able to steer the ship back to reliability and ease-of-use focused UX.

This is not a “Jobs would never have done this” kind of post. This is a frustration post at how far Apple has strayed from the values which made them one of the top players in tech - those values, and the products they drive were not built my one man.

I think Apple jumped the shark. Time to repair this breaking organization and get back to fundamentals.

Customer experience, reliability, usability, and functionality.

Edit: I’ve asked the mods for the post to be deleted. I don’t know if they will, but I’m done.
Check my replies below if you like. This was a simple vent/rant that’s turned way too ugly for my liking.
Take care.

I respectfully disagree:

Different to what you expect and know is not a mess. It means you got a knowledge gap. However, UI wise, many new implementations are controversial nevertheless.

Stop ranting. Start learning.

 

[Ipadonly1]

I was a humanities student and was able to complete two degrees from an iPad Pro 11” (not without a little difficulty), but friends who studied engineering or science subjects definitely did need a laptop. Idk maybe it’s doable now, but I remember them having to use a lot of MatLab (I think it’s called) and write and crucially run a fair bit of code.

 

[cogzero]

I respectfully disagree:

Different to what you expect and know is not a mess. It means you got a knowledge gap. However, UI wise, many new implementations are controversial nevertheless.

Stop ranting. Start learning.

Could you please point to the respectful portion of your response?

 

[dcsbenmac]

A question about a specific interface element in the public beta - that’s the white outline around certain elements - on my iPad Air it appears thick and thin when first appearing - say when dragging down from the top of the screen to go to the home screen with say the podcast control running, then after a few seconds redraws to become all thicker. Is this beta behaviour, iPad Air speed or is this meant to happen?

Got to say I don’t like it much, but it’s the only part of liquid glass I don’t like.

I’ve noticed it’s around icons and the dock as well, but here it is much less noticeable, but in the place I mentioned stands out far too much.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

I don’t understand what’s convoluted or difficult about it at all, it’s literally the simplest window management system.
Touch and drag the corner of a window, it resizes. click one of the traffic light controls, it… Controls.
i’m not sure what more you could ask for.
there are tiny tweaks I wish they would make, for example, making the touch targets on the traffic light controls slightly bigger, but that’s not really about the actual window management system itself.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Dude, I loathe the new iPadOS multitasking. Huge letdown. The windows are ridiculous on this device. It’s harder to swipe back and forth between groups of apps. I used to just snap what I wanted as a split screen view, then swiped over to whatever view I wanted, like in virtual desktops on macOS. It was super simple and fast. Now, I have just larger bulkier windows with big gaps between them that show whatever other app is behind them that I did not want as part of that grouping. They dont have a clean and simple way to just switching between groups of full screen apps in a split screen arrangement. They literally removed a perfectly good feature I used all the time and replaced it with this **** which only kind of works and uses extra steps.

Give me back snap to!

this feature literally exists, it’s called stage manager.
you can disable the sidebar in the settings, and literally use stage manager just like spaces on the Mac.

 

[turbineseaplane]

@tweaknmod

Your original post here is extremely on point.
Please don't let folks deter you from posting your feelings.

Not everything is roses and sunshine with Apple anymore and it's important to say it out loud when you see it, as you did.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

Agreed - to a point.

My comments are related to how they make that money.

Apple products got so popular by adhering to the values mentioned above. They sell more of those products over years, making more money, because people trust that the company keeps those values in mind when developing those products.

By rushing out services or features before they are ready (and I’m not just talking about a beta - the state of these features clearly show they aren’t even ready for that), they are eroding the trust in those values.

If customers see, over time, that Apple no longer has a reputation for “it just works”, then they may look to the competition. If they do that, then Apple’s profits will go down.

I do not think Apple is an entity. Adhering to the values of customer experience, reliability, usability, and functionality was a business decision – one meant to generate a profit.

What I was saying was that I think those values have shifted for more short-term ones. And the new values of faster, flashier, and more bullet listed updates, go directly against those that made them so profitable and successful today.

Apple has released plenty of products over the years that were “too early” or needed more time in the oven, literally since their first product.
The Apple I, the Apple III, Lisa, even the original Macintosh, Newton, the first several releases of Mac OS X, G4 Cube, iPod Hi-fi, first generation Apple TV and the list goes on and on and on.

 

[Lounge vibes 05]

You do understand that something like a Public Beta is far enough into the beta stages that design of UI is pretty much set.

this is not correct, and it is never correct. The UI never is “set”.
just look at the Photos app last year.
announced and released in beta in June 2024, Apple was still tweaking and messing with it up through the 18.5 betas in April/May.
it’s likely the new designs are going to be tweaked and messed with for years to come. it’s possible there might even be some major differences between 26.0 and 26.1 just a month later, and there’s certainly will be plenty of changes between 26.0 and 26.7.

 

[turbineseaplane]

this is not correct, and it is never correct. The UI never is “set”.
just look at the Photos app last year.

This is way more than an App -- It's the entire UI concept across multiple platforms.

This is indeed basically "set" for the year at this point, people are correct.