iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

[Marli]

After travelling to Europe and trying to use the iPad as my primary device, I can confirm iOS26 is a mess, sooo many UI issues, freezes, lock ups, over lapping text, the list is endless... just terrible..

It’s the Apple version of Vista..

 

[Mrbiggestman]

After travelling to Europe and trying to use the iPad as my primary device, I can confirm iOS26 is a mess, sooo many UI issues, freezes, lock ups, over lapping text, the list is endless... just terrible..

It’s the Apple version of Vista..

I have been using ipadOS 26 since like the first dev beta 2 update and its been mostly fine.
The one app that was announced at WWDC that I am particularly not happy about during testing is probably preview. The app is still the most buggiest app in the world and heats up my device unneccessarily.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I have been using ipadOS 26 since like the first dev beta 2 update and its been mostly fine.

That's really not much of an endorsement.

We are in the release now, not the betas anymore.

This should be way better before released to normal users.

 

[Marli]

Often you have to tap multiple times on a button to get it to register.. the keyboard often has a mind of its own.. it’s a lottery to if swiping up closes the app, with 30% of swipes ignored it seems.. and just waaay to much UI bling that just gets in the way.. like I said.. it will be remembered like Windows Vista on iOS.

Mac OS is fine. Haven’t had any issues with that so far..

 

[Mrbiggestman]

That's really not much of an endorsement.

We are in the release now, not the betas anymore.

This should be way better before released to normal users.

you should probably read it again ‘ I have been using ipadOS 26 since first dev beta 2’

 

[turbineseaplane]

you should probably read it again ‘ I have been using ipadOS 26 since first dev beta 2’

Yes, I saw that part..

My point is that iPadOS 26 being "mostly fine" now, is not great.

It needs to be a lot better than "mostly fine" now that it's released to the public, at least IMO.

 

[Mrbiggestman]

Often you have to tap multiple times on a button to get it to register.. the keyboard often has a mind of its own.. it’s a lottery to if swiping up closes the app, with 30% of swipes ignored it seems.. and just waaay to much UI bling that just gets in the way.. like I said.. it will be remembered like Windows Vista on iOS.

Mac OS is fine. Haven’t had any issues with that so far..

I haven’t really had any touch issues as per say but sometimes on the keyboard with bluetooth, the ipad won’t respond to what I’m typing but usually it goes away after pressing on the window I want to type on with the touchscreen.

 

[Mrbiggestman]

Yes, I saw that part..

My point is that iPadOS 26 being "mostly fine" now, is not great.

It needs to be a lot better than "mostly fine" now that it's released to the public, at least IMO.

Yeah, because i know it still has issues, I’m not saying its perfect to the extent that there isn’t anything wrong with the OS but there are still some QOL features that can be done in the future that could benefit ipadOS 26 users.

 

[It’s always something]

Yes, I saw that part..

My point is that iPadOS 26 being "mostly fine" now, is not great.

It needs to be a lot better than "mostly fine" now that it's released to the public, at least IMO.

Yes. The cosmetic problems are atrocious. It looks like they slapped it together and shipped it without letting the QA team touch it.

 

[steve62388]

I didn’t ignore it… I responded to your point. Have not used Stage Manager? That was part of my response… the fact that Recent App area sits on the left side can be detriment in using Slide Over gestures. Because Slide Over is not only enabled in the new Windowed mode… but Stage Manager as well.

And if you moved Slide Over gesture to Classic (guessing you mean Full Screen) mode then you would end up having multitasking forced on users who don’t care to have it. Ultimately, the criticism stems from wanting 4 modes… Full Screen, SplitView/SlideOver, Stage Manager and Windowed Mode.

And if Apple grants 4 modes, great! But it appears as though they rather keep the Settings set to 3 modes.

I never suggested making changes to stage manager.

I did read your previous comment about Apple introducing a non-multitasking mode because people were accidentally activating it and I didn’t believe you for two reasons. One being the slide over actions are almost impossible to accidentally activate because the action is very specific and not where you might randomly swipe inwards, and two I don’t remember this being the case so do you have a source?

Based on this I think slide over would fit very nicely into a ‘classic’ style paradigm.

 

[FeliApple]

One app is already open… you bring another app in. TAP once (traffic lights), HOLD and tap FILL arrange…. Is that seven taps? And then there is the fact that apps remember their last state. So, sometimes you don’t even have to do any adjustments because… apps stay in their half state (done this plenty of times).

But I prefer to use the gestures.. one app on the left while bring in the 2nd app to flick to the right. And the crazy part about your response… you ignore the rest I stated. The old system was LIMITED… we only had two apps actively available and the 3rd app (SlideOver) was hovered over the two.

And correct me if I’m wrong, you are not big on updates in general… so it being limited was perfect for you. But personally, I wanted a change.

It took that many in 26.0 now Apple “re-added it” and it is worse. It is garbage. All because of a ridiculous minority that should buy a Mac. And sell the iPads. They clearly don’t like them.

 

[super chimp]

As I said over in the other thread this is what you get when you confine major OS updates to being released at roughly the same time every year, rather than when they are actually ready. I wonder how much crunch was used to get something out now, and that’s why it’s a mess.

 

[Ludatyk]

I never suggested making changes to stage manager.

Huh? I never said you did.

I did read your previous comment about Apple introducing a non-multitasking mode because people were accidentally activating it and I didn’t believe you for two reasons.

Not sure if you are on iPadOS 18 or 26…. You can see there’s a non-multitasking mode in settings. Clearly, there’s a reason for that.

One being the slide over actions are almost impossible to accidentally activate because the action is very specific and not where you might randomly swipe inwards, and two I don’t remember this being the case so do you have a source?

Gruber spearheaded a conversation about multitasking back in early 2020 and in the article he mention this.

Per Gruber:

As things stand today, I get a phone call from my mom once a month or so because she’s accidentally gotten Safari into split-screen mode when tapping links in Mail or Messages and can’t get out.

I like my iPad very much, and use it almost every day. But if I could go back to the pre-split-screen, pre-drag-and-drop interface I would. Which is to say, now that iPadOS has its own name, I wish I could install the iPhone’s one-app-on-screen-at-a-time, no-drag-and-drop iOS on my iPad Pro. I’d do it in a heartbeat and be much happier for it.

 

[steve62388]

Huh? I never said you did.


Not sure if you are on iPadOS 18 or 26…. You can see there’s a non-multitasking mode in settings. Clearly, there’s a reason for that.


Gruber spearheaded a conversation about multitasking back in early 2020 and in the article he mention this.

Per Gruber:

You used stage manager as a reason to why keeping slide over was a problem, that the slide over app could be moved to the left and that’s where stage manager displays it’s recently used apps. I never suggested removing or modifying stage manager, I’m okay with keeping it in its current application because although I don’t use it I know some people do.

I’m not convinced some anecdotal evidence from one journalist about his mum points towards a widespread issue.

I have a problem with people that love the new windowing system because ‘it’s so much more powerful and productive for me’ and yet in the same breath don’t give a **** that the way many users interacted with their iPad was with slide over and split view but ‘screw them they can just be dumbed down and have full screen mode. I can have cake but you can’t’.

 

[Ludatyk]

I’m not convinced some anecdotal evidence from one journalist about his mum points towards a widespread problem.

But the evidence is in settings now… if you were to go into it there’s a non-multitasking mode, why would that be the case?

I have a problem with people that love the new windowing system because ‘it’s so much more powerful and productive for me’ and yet in the same breath don’t give a **** that the way many users interacted with their iPad was with slide over and split view but ‘screw them they can just be dumbed down and have full screen mode. I can have cake but you can’t’.

Not sure if this is directed toward me but never did I suggest not caring about users who preferred pre-existing multitasking system… stated previously if Apple adds it back, great!

But on the flip side.. you have the people who favor the old system calling the new system garbage.

 

[steve62388]

Has typing got worse on iPadOS 26?

Anecdotally I seem to be making a lot more errors typing using the onscreen keyboard. Both spelling and weird stuff where wordsjumble all together (that was deliberate), spelling a word correctly but then autocorrect changing it to a completely different one, words missed out, the OS missing a space bar press, punctuation errors etc.

It’s very hard to specifically quantify but my accuracy really seems to have dropped after the 26 install. This could just be me so reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced the same?

Possible reasons why it might not be my fault: They’ve changed the spacing on the keyboard so I’m missing keys. They’ve completely screwed the pooch on the background processing for typing. They’ve changed the prediction model. Because of a bug(s) processing is a lot slower and it’s just not keeping up with my typing.

 

[Mrbiggestman]

Yes, I saw that part..

My point is that iPadOS 26 being "mostly fine" now, is not great.

It needs to be a lot better than "mostly fine" now that it's released to the public, at least IMO.

Has typing got worse on iPadOS 26?

Anecdotally I seem to be making a lot more errors typing using the onscreen keyboard. Both spelling and weird stuff where wordsjumble all together (that was deliberate), spelling a word correctly but then autocorrect changing it to a completely different one, words missed out, the OS missing a space bar press, punctuation errors etc.

It’s very hard to specifically quantify but my accuracy really seems to have dropped after the 26 install. This could just be me so reaching out to see if anyone else has experienced the same?

Possible reasons why it might not be my fault: They’ve changed the spacing on the keyboard so I’m missing keys. They’ve completely screwed the pooch on the background processing for typing. They’ve changed the prediction model. Because of a bug(s) processing is a lot slower and it’s just not keeping up with my typing.

yeah i don’t really like auto-correct. in-fact i’ve just turned it off rn. its annoying.

 

[Marli]

Auto correct on iOS devices has been unusable for quite a few versions. I think the last phone I had when it was usable was the iPhone 4s or maybe the 6.. around that era.. It just has no ability to learn its mistakes either. I would have thought with AI etc, it would learn its repeated mistakes after being corrected 100 times.

 

[super chimp]

Auto correct on iOS devices has been unusable for quite a few versions. I think the last phone I had when it was usable was the iPhone 4s or maybe the 6.. around that era.. It just has no ability to learn its mistakes either. I would have thought with AI etc, it would learn its repeated mistakes after being corrected 100 times.

My over seven year old OnePlus 6 using the current version of Google keyboard has light years better autocorrect than my iPhone 13 Pro sad to say.

 

[bbfc]

My only gripe with iPadOS 26 is Safari. To me the UI is a mess. The floating buttons and address bar look awful, and I really want the ability to move the address bar to the bottom like on iOS.

 

[Mrbiggestman]

My only gripe with iPadOS 26 is Safari. To me the UI is a mess. The floating buttons and address bar look awful, and I really want the ability to move the address bar to the bottom like on iOS.

Yup hopefully they fix this mess in 26.1 beta 4.

 

[bbfc]

Yup hopefully they fix this mess in 26.1 beta 4.

Or at least give us the option of a frosted tab bar that you can see. I really dislike these floating buttons on Safari. The UI on iOS 26 is so much better.

 

[Ludatyk]

Yup hopefully they fix this mess in 26.1 beta 4.

We are actually in beta 3... but there's no hopefully involved. It's bad and it will be fixed, throughout this whole 26 run Safari never looked like that.

Or at least give us the option of a frosted tab bar that you can see. I really dislike these floating buttons on Safari. The UI on iOS 26 is so much better.

I miss the compact tabs bar... that's what I wish we could have back.

 

[bbfc]

We are actually in beta 3... but there's no hopefully involved. It's bad and it will be fixed, throughout this whole 26 run Safari never looked like that.


I miss the compact tabs bar... that's what I wish we could have back.

I just want the UI to look less like a hot mess.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I can't even stand the LG icons I'm seeing on some Apps, while still on iOS 18.

It really pisses me off that Apps are forcing that on folks not even using iOS 26.