![]() ![]() This model feels like the realization of iOS 11’s design: after multiple Split View spaces, we can now have multiple instances of the same app too. Unlike what initial rumors suggested, iPadOS’ app windows are not tabs presented as part of a single app view: windows are, visually and spatially speaking, fully independent views that can be used in full-screen, combined with other apps in Split View, or put in Slide Over (which is also changing in iPadOS, but more on this later).Īpple went all-in on the idea of enabling users to open an unlimited number of app windows, which they can shuffle around, combine with other windows from other apps, and close whenever they want. ![]() ![]() IPadOS’ multiwindow abilities fit in squarely with iOS 11’s support for multiple app spaces. Developers are free to choose what iPadOS’ multiwindowing support can enable, and they can do so using a new scene technology that lets apps spawn these multiple instances, which can be placed anywhere in the system. ![]() Windows allow you to open the same document from the same app in multiple locations, or load different pieces of content in separate views of an app, or display the same object with a different presentation across windows. Apple calls these instances “windows”, like on macOS even though they don’t actually look like windows on a Mac – there is no underlying desktop and windows can’t overlap with each other (except for Slide Over) – they roughly behave the same way. The key concept behind iPadOS 13’s multiwindow environment is that you can now open multiple instances of the same app across the system. While iOS 11 was, in some ways, a departure from iOS 9’s multitasking activation and spatiality, iPadOS 13 keeps iOS 11’s interaction paradigm intact and extends it with the addition of two classic Mac features: Exposé and multiple windows. It’s not surprising then how, in going beyond the tablet by mixing the best traits of two OSes, Apple ended up creating a third one with iPadOS. It’s debatable whether Apple met everyone’s expectations with iOS 11 however, it’s undeniable how the past four years of iPad have been characterized by Apple’s goal to cater to casual and professional users alike by blending iOS’ ingenuity with the Mac’s cardinal productivity principles. In fact, both iOS 9 and iOS 11 were attempts to broaden the scope of the iPad as a computer for the masses by catering to a different portion of the audience: those who, after all, wanted to elect an iPad as their primary computer and wouldn’t mind – actually, they craved – an additional layer of moderate complexity. Those days have long been gone, but not because Apple disowned the iPad’s original idea of striving to be a computer for everyone. The iPad shed the Mac’s complexity in favor of the iPhone’s simplicity and projected that on a bigger screen – and people loved it. That design decision, or perhaps technological limitation presented under a veneer of designer intention, set expectations accordingly: the iPad was no land for old Mac features. As a result, the iPad, just like the iPhone before, could dynamically transform into whatever app you were running at any given moment, be it a book, a newspaper, or a word processor. There was an App Store where users could safely download thousands of apps, but using them didn’t require the dexterity necessary to operate multiple windows on a Mac. I’ve argued on several occasions before that one of the reasons the iPad found incredible success in its first two years of life was its close resemblance to the iPhone. And in the process, they’ve fundamentally rethought what it means to use an iPad app and what users should expect from multitasking on a tablet. After adapting split-screen multitasking to iPad with iOS 9 and leveraging drag and drop as a multitasking facilitator in iOS 11, this year Apple set its sights on multiwindowing. If iOS 11 felt like a reintroduction of the iPad, inspired by the Mac’s best traits, iPadOS 13 is an addendum to that vision – the latest installment of Apple’s rethinking of classic Mac features for the age of touch.
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