Although Apple’s tablet knows several apps next to each other and sometimes even superimposes them, real window management is missing. Is it coming in iPadOS 16?
Apple has updated the functionality of iPadOS is constantly being expanded to make the operating system more professional – extensive multitasking features have been integrated, there is support for mice and trackpads and the boundaries between computer and tablet seem to be dissolving more and more. But what was missing until now was real window management, with which windows can be moved and resized. Allegedly, this could now be coming to iPadOS 16, as recent code leaks seem to indicate.
Correct windows on iPad?
These were implemented in the latest version of Apple’s WebKit browser engine discovered, as the well-known Apple leak expert Steve Troughton-Smith announced on Twitter. Apple’s GitHub repository for the WebKit project mentions a “multitasking mode” the speech, which apparently allows freely resizable windows under iPadOS. This is simply not planned at the moment, there are standard window positions that the user is not allowed to change.
The code leaks suggest that Apple will allow two modes in the future: a “normal”; with full screen and regular, limited multitasking operation that expands to “tablet mode” seems to mention, as well as said multitasking mode. You can supposedly switch between the two. The clues are apparently already in the WebKit code to prepare the browser engine for iPadOS 16. Apple engineers are directly involved.
Apple proceeds cautiously
If it were possible to change the size of windows on the iPad, this would be a paradigm shift in the operation of the tablet Line. Initially, this always used full-screen mode, in which you could only switch between complete apps. Later versions of iPadOS added fairly simple multitasking features, allowing multiple apps to be displayed on the big screen at the same time; however, there are severe restrictions on how these may be displayed. A free resizing of the window was never intended.
However, this would only be logical. Since 2020, Apple has allowed the use of trackpads and mice, including mouse pointers, on its tablets – something that was once considered unthinkable. The feature was introduced slowly, initially for accessibility purposes, until Apple fully embraced it and then launched its own keyboard and trackpad especially for its tablet line.
