iPadOS 26 to Bring These Mac-Like Features to Your iPad

The lines betwixt iPad and Mac person ne'er been blurrier – and with iPadOS 26, presently successful beta and expected aboriginal this month, Apple is leaning further into that overlap than ever before. The update brings a suite of almighty caller features that elevate the iPad's utility, bridging the spread betwixt touch-first tablet and full-fledged desktop machine.


From enhanced multitasking to precocious record management, iPadOS 26 pushes Apple's tablet deeper into Mac territory, without sacrificing the unsocial strengths that marque the iPad truthful versatile. Here are conscionable immoderate of the ways iPadOS 26 makes the iPad consciousness much similar a Mac than ever – coming soon to a instrumentality adjacent you.

Menu Bar

Within immoderate progressive app, swipe down from the apical of the surface and you volition spot a new, afloat functioning macOS-style paper bar. With the foremost dropdown paper being the app's sanction (where app settings are typically accessed), different modular menus tin see File, Edit, Format, View, Window, and Help. As you'd expect, the paper barroom is dynamic, and volition show menus circumstantial to the app. In Safari you get Bookmarks and History, for instance.

Windowed Apps

In Settings ➝ Multitasking & Gestures, there's a caller Windowed Apps mode that fundamentally lets you put and resize aggregate windows successful a azygous space, conscionable similar connected a Mac. The caller mode tin besides beryllium invoked from Control Center, acknowledgment to a caller fastener that with a agelong property lets you power betwixt Windowed Apps and Stage Manager.

You tin determination aggregate app windows and stack them connected apical of each different by dragging each model from the top, and you tin individually resize them by dragging the bottom-right corner. And if you rapidly resistance an app model to a country of the screen, it volition automatically grow to capable that fractional of the screen. Tapping a abstraction connected the Home Screen volition besides scatter each unfastened windows to the sides of the screen, giving you abstraction to unfastened different apps.

Traffic Lights

In the top-left country of each model you'll present spot 3 acquainted postulation lights, consecutive retired of macOS. Tapping the awesome expands it into red, amber, and greenish buttons for closing, minimizing, and expanding the model to fullscreen.


Long-pressing the buttons besides reveals the Mac-style Move & Resize and Fill & Arrange options, arsenic good arsenic an enactment to parkland the app off-screen to Add a New Window (if the app supports it).

App Exposé

In the caller Windowed Apps mode, iPadOS 26 besides includes an App Exposé-style presumption that's akin to the App Switcher. Swipe up from the bottommost of the surface to invoke the view, which shows each the unfastened apps successful the existent space. You tin besides scroll the caller interface to spot your different unfastened apps, whether they're sharing spaces oregon unfastened successful full-screen mode.

Preview

The iPad yet includes the Mac's long-standing Preview app, lone present with Apple Pencil support, enabling you to easy open, edit, and people up a scope of images, documents, and record types. The Preview app's browsing paper is simply a batch similar the Files interface, wherever you tin browse your files and cheque retired caller and shared items. You tin besides scan documents from close wrong the app.

Trackpad Pointer

If you person a Magic Keyboard trackpad oregon a Bluetooth rodent connected to your iPad, the cursor is present a Mac-like pointer alternatively than a circle. And if you shingle it, the pointer volition get bigger truthful that you tin easy find it connected the screen.

Advanced File Management

In iPadOS 26, the iPad's Files app is enhanced with a caller List presumption that features resizable columns and collapsible folders, and caller filters, allowing users to spot much papers details astatine a glimpse and signifier their files. To assistance you place folders much easily, the app present supports folder customization with customized colors, icons, and emoji, each of which sync crossed devices.

In Files, iPadOS 26‌ besides allows you to acceptable a default app for opening circumstantial files oregon record types, acknowledgment to a caller Open With... enactment successful the contextual dropdown menu. You tin besides alteration the default app successful the caller Get Info panel.

Folders successful Dock

In the Files app, agelong property connected a folder and you'll spot a caller Add to Dock enactment successful the contextual dropdown menu. So you tin present parkland immoderate folder successful your Dock, and if you agelong property connected its icon, you'll spot Mac-style show options to presumption the contented arsenic a Grid oregon a Fan, arsenic good arsenic the emblematic sorting preferences.

• Does My iPad Support iPadOS 26?

In iPadOS 26, you tin present acceptable up to 23 icons successful the Dock, truthful there's thing stopping you from adding aggregate folders. In Settings ➝ Multitasking & Gestures, there's besides a caller enactment to Automatically Show and Hide the Dock, conscionable similar successful macOS.
This article, "iPadOS 26 to Bring These Mac-Like Features to Your iPad" archetypal appeared connected MacRumors.com

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