With iPadOS 26, Apple has introduced a new multitasking UI that allows for several open apps at the same time. You can change the size of iPad app windows, move them on top of each other, and rearrange them as desired, much like on the Mac. In a new interview with Ars Technica, Apple's software chief Craig Federighi has explained why the iPad took so long to gain proper windowed multitasking.
The delay apparently stemmed from early hardware limitations. According to Federighi, original iPads lacked the power for true multitasking, and the touch-first interface demanded perfect responsiveness.
"It is a foundational requirement that if you touch the screen and start to move something that it responds," Federighi told Ars. "Otherwise, the entire interaction model is broken – it's a psychic break with your contract with the device."
Early iPads "didn't have the capacity to run an unlimited number of windowed apps with perfect responsiveness," he added. Apps weren't designed for dynamic resizing either.
Stage Manager's troubled 2022 debut brought its own challenges. Apple restricted it to high-end models to ensure consistent eight-app performance, but that inevitably frustrated users with older iPads. However, as iPad Pro hardware became Mac-equivalent in power, technical barriers disappeared. "Over time the iPad's gotten more powerful, the screens have gotten larger, the user base has shifted into a mode where there is a little bit more trackpad and keyboard use in how many people use the device," Federighi told Ars.
"And so the stars kind of aligned to where many of the things that you traditionally do with a Mac were possible to do on an iPad for the first time and still meet iPad's basic contract."
For iPadOS 26, Apple changed its approach. "We decided this time: make everything we can make available, even if it has some nuances on older hardware, because we saw so much demand," Federighi said. While iPadOS 26 allows for multiple app windows, there are limitations on how many apps can be open at once. On older iPads, for example, you're limited to four apps. Newer iPads can have more open app windows.
iPad app windows feature the Mac traffic-light controls, and these can be used for resizing and closing apps. iPad apps also have Mac-style menu bars for tweaking settings, and there's a feature for running system-intensive tasks in the background. While the new interface borrows familiar Mac design elements like window controls and colors, there are key differences. Background processing remains restricted to finite tasks like file transfers rather than continuous system agents, for example.
"We've looked and said, as [the iPad and Mac] come together, where on the iPad the Mac idiom for doing something, like where we put the window close controls and maximize controls, what color are they – we've said why not, where it makes sense, use a converged design for those things so it's familiar and comfortable," Federighi told Ars. "But where it doesn't make sense, iPad's gonna be iPad."
Stage Manager survives as an optional mode alongside the new windowed system, giving users multiple multitasking approaches. iPadOS 26 also preserves the traditional single-app interface for users who prefer the iPad's original simplicity.
The changes are Apple's biggest step yet toward treating the iPad as a legitimate laptop replacement, particularly for the base $349 model that stands to gain the most from enhanced multitasking capabilities. iPadOS 26 is currently in developer beta, with a public beta arriving next month and a general release expected in the fall. What do you think of the multitasking changes Apple has introduced? Lets us know in the comments.
