iPadOS 26 is an Absolute Mess

[Mrbiggestman]

macOS somehow managed to figure out windowing years ago.

• Split View has been in Mac since 10.11 and doesn't require disabling resizable windows to support it
• Fullscreen alongside Split View and resizable windows
• Multiple desktops so you can arrange windows on different desktops and get rid of clutter (having everything either in the app switcher or the current single resizable desktop space is pathetic)
• Drag and drop to rearrange what windows are on each desktop
  • I think it was iPadOS 16 that finally got this right in app expose where you could drag apps in and out of split views, the fact they still haven't figured this out for stage manager or the new window manager is just disgraceful.
  • The inability to do easy window management means the new system is just as bad and restrictive as the old one (stage manager) just with a new coat of paint...

1) And yet we are back in ipadOS 18 because only certain windows are able to function in splitview anyway.

2)Ok but that's because that's what people expect of a computer anyway. ipad is still gradually shifting that expectation.

3)ok but I've not found a use case for multiple desktops on windows nor on mac yet, plus the windowing limit is just 12 so is there a use case for multiple desktops? not really until they increase window limit.

4a) yeah, but that was the whole point of stage manager, you can plug windows out and plug them into a different sections, but i still don't get the logic of stage manager.

4b)well, there are features ripped right out of Mac and put into iPadOS but I'm discovering that most people who hate ipadOS 26 have this attitude of 'if its apple's first iteration, then its their best iteration.'

I'm not denying that this is the 'perfect software with no faults' because there are still genuine improvements to be made (i.e: easier gesture navigation, a menu bar for the homescreen, preview being not glitchy and draining battery faster, visual bug improvement) but going along with the attitude the ipadOS community has created isn't going to be:

A: sustainable for the brand because its just going to be a bunch of negative press for the ipad creating hesitancy for new consumers.

B: will just in still fear inside apple to bring new features that will be genuinely positive to the ipad experience and instead we'll just see clumsy updates like we've seen with previous IpadOS updates.

 

[bcortens]

Have you used iPadOS 26 or better yet Stage Manager? You can have as many Split View apps setup similar to that of iPadOS 18.

I only really turn on stage manger when we start chatting about this because otherwise its limitations bug me too much.

However, "as many Split View groups as I want" was in reference to the new resizable multitasking windows system in iPadOS26 (in which you only have one "space/desktop" into which you can place resizable windows) I wasn't referring to Stage Manager with this remark.

With the new windowing system they supposedly gave people what they wanted but still failed to achieve the level of capability that was present back in 2005 with Mac OS X Tiger... (Panther didn't have spaces so I guess they sort of matched Panther but worse? because its harder to drag and drop windows form the fullscreen area into the resizable area?).
/s Such progress and innovation, they managed to sort of badly replicate something that was possible on an iMac G3 running at 233 MHz ... there is no excuse for the limits on running apps or the number of windows given what was possible 22 years ago...

Stage manager is better than this new system in this regard because you can have spaces/desktops to work with but it still limits you to only easily working with 4 spaces.

The recent apps area is so limited when you could achieve nearly the same thing with more flexibility with a drag and drop global App Exposé system.

User can have stages (Recent App area) with multiple SplitView apps. Once again you bring up Exposé when I informed awhile back that under the new system you multitask via the Recent App area.

You and I obviously differ on this but I find the recent apps version of window management inferior to the broader global app switcher.

The global app switcher (with Split View) lets you drag apps between Split View groups, fullscreen windows, and slide-over. It also lets you do this for apps that are arbitrarily in the past rather being limited to the 4 most recent app groups. Stage Manager (for some inexplicable reason) doesn't let you do this, it forces you to use the much more limited and restricted recent apps switcher.

If you are accustomed to using macOS… spaces is similar to that of Stage Manager whereas you have multiple windows/apps within a stage. You can have Messages, Discord and WhatsApp within a stage.. then maybe Safari, Mail and Google Keep within another stage.

Stage manager does do this, but as I've said, it has arbitrary and weird limitations such as stacking (see below) its much more fiddly than Split View since StageManager requires more precision in placing the windows to get a nice Split View (again macOS somehow supports both resizable windows and Split View - I actually use macOS the way you are recommending stage manager be used here precisely because macOS doesn't support drag and drop out of a Split View or fullscreen).

Not sure what you mean by stacking here?

Open 5-7 safari windows in fullscreen with Stage Manger enabled - they will be stacked on top of each other making it difficult to impossible to grab windows from anywhere but the top of the stack. This isn't a problem in macOS anymore (since they gave us the option to turn that idiocy off) nor is it a problem in iPadOS 18s SplitView style App Exposé multitasking system.

Given my brief time with iPadOS 26's resizable multitasking system I'd rather use stage manager than that as it at least (as you say) gives you multiple desktops for better organization.

I'm not saying Stage Manager is not useful, what I'm trying to say is Apple has spent years and has yet to manage to replicate the easy to understand mental model that they first mastered 20 years ago with Mac OS Tiger ... with Tiger (and iPadOS 18 in Split View mode) you can mentally conceptualize where your windows are, it is predictable, it is easy to manipulate.

 

[bcortens]

1) And yet we are back in ipadOS 18 because only certain windows are able to function in splitview anyway.

Apple is forcing devs to adopt apps to resize now, the new system is not optional if the user turns on resizable windows your app can be resized even if it makes no sense for that app...

2)Ok but that's because that's what people expect of a computer anyway. ipad is still gradually shifting that expectation.

They have no qualms about making something confusing and complicated, see single app Expose in stage manager or the new multi-window system.

3)ok but I've not found a use case for multiple desktops on windows nor on mac yet, plus the windowing limit is just 12 so is there a use case for multiple desktops? not really until they increase window limit.

I am a Mac Power user, admittedly, on my personal machine I have 6 desktops each with half a dozen windows and my work machine has 10 desktops with more windows on each screen.
I like to have my workspace ready to go when I switch between tasks.

The 12 window limit is sad, as I pointed out earlier, I can have more windows than that on a 233MHz G3 iMac... if Apple has gotten so bad at optimization that they can't iPadOS run smoothly in 2025, with over 2 decades of progress they deserve our absolute scorn and condemnation

4a) yeah, but that was the whole point of stage manager, you can plug windows out and plug them into a different sections, but i still don't get the logic of stage manager.

4b)well, there are features ripped right out of Mac and put into iPadOS but I'm discovering that most people who hate ipadOS 26 have this attitude of 'if its apple's first iteration, then its their best iteration.'

My attitude is that Split View was introduced in 2015 and didn't finally reach its best form till iPadOS 16 when it got drag and drop.
Apple bringing resizable windows to iPadOS in a way that is inferior to what they did on Mac OS X 22 years ago... that is not something worthy of praise. There is no reason not to expect better, but they have gone around and around for years trying to reinvent the wheel from a UX perspective.

I'm not denying that this is the 'perfect software with no faults' because there are still genuine improvements to be made (i.e: easier gesture navigation, a menu bar for the homescreen, preview being not glitchy and draining battery faster, visual bug improvement) but going along with the attitude the ipadOS community has created isn't going to be:

A: sustainable for the brand because its just going to be a bunch of negative press

B: will just in still fear inside apple to bring new features that will be genuinely positive to the ipad experience and instead we'll just see clumsy updates like we've seen with previous IpadOS updates.

My cynicism arises because Apple, through their misguided attempt to appease Mac users, keeps giving the iPad new windowing systems which are never refined or finished... They also keep trying to reinvent the wheel to avoid admitting that something built before the current crop of managers came to Apple is actually the right way forward.

They should just admit that macOS got resizable windowing alllmost perfect with Mission Control and let people have that if they insist on resizable windows ...

 

[Ludatyk]

With the new windowing system they supposedly gave people what they wanted but still failed to achieve the level of capability that was present back in 2005 with Mac OS X Tiger... (Panther didn't have spaces so I guess they sort of matched Panther but worse? because its harder to drag and drop windows form the fullscreen area into the resizable area?).
/s Such progress and innovation, they managed to sort of badly replicate something that was possible on an iMac G3 running at 233 MHz ... there is no excuse for the limits on running apps or the number of windows given what was possible 22 years ago...

Within this new windowing system… there’s two modes. Windowed Mode and Stage Manager… Windowed Mode caters more for macOS users who want to click/tap an app and it opens.. repeat and rinse. And with Stage Manager we are able to have more than 4 apps activity displayed.

In addition to those two modes… we got better movement when it comes to resizing, more fluid less rigid. Not sure how its failed in capabilities due to dragging and dropping. Oh yeah, forgot to mention… window tiling via the traffic lights.

The global app switcher (with Split View) lets you drag apps between Split View groups, fullscreen windows, and slide-over. It also lets you do this for apps that are arbitrarily in the past rather being limited to the 4 most recent app groups. Stage Manager (for some inexplicable reason) doesn't let you do this, it forces you to use the much more limited and restricted recent apps switcher.

But what you missing here is… you don’t have to evoke the app switcher. Recent app area is available on screen… able to quickly multitasking between stages and windows/apps.

With global app switcher (Exposé)… you have to swipe up make changes whereas under Stage Manager there’s no need to swipe up.

Open 5-7 safari windows in fullscreen with Stage Manger enabled - they will be stacked on top of each other making it difficult to impossible to grab windows from anywhere but the top of the stack. This isn't a problem in macOS anymore (since they gave us the option to turn that idiocy off) nor is it a problem in iPadOS 18s SplitView style App Exposé multitasking system.

Yes, you are correct it stacks. But as I stated again… the system is design for you to multitask from the Recent App area… not Exposé. Whenever I’m using Stage Manager… I never swipe up. Because swiping up doesn’t benefit me at all… under this new system.

 

[steve62388]

We had our share of exchanges and I know you don't care for Stage Manager, but it's kind of ironic stating that this new windowing mode has limitations and restrictions when iPadOS 18 is limited and restricted. We were restricted while limited to only TWO windows and another (SlideOver) window was layered over top... obstructed the view from the other TWO windows.

Slide over obscured ONE window, not TWO and it was very easy to flick it from one side of the screen to the other.

 

[steve62388]

Have you used iPadOS 26 or better yet Stage Manager? You can have as many Split View apps setup similar to that of iPadOS 18.

The iPadOS 26 implementation of ‘slide over’ is still unnecessarily unwieldy compared to iPadOS 18.

 

[TigerMSTR]

It’s been two months, and the iPadOS 26 menu bar is utterly useless. Apple should push an update that lets us disable this, and all the other useless changes in iPadOS 26.