iPadOS 26: End of Split View and Slide Over
iPadOS 26 allows you to work freely with multiple windows – as often desired. A popular mode seems to have fallen victim to this.
Apple didn't want to let so many windows onto the iPad for a long time.
(Image: Apple)
Apple has put the iPad window system on a completely new footing: With many borrowings from macOS, the manufacturer presented a fundamentally new system in iPadOS 26, which is also coming to all iPads on which the upcoming version can be installed. However, an established multitasking mode has fallen victim to this step in the first beta of iPadOS 26, as developers report. The previous "Split View & Slide Over" option is missing.
It made it possible to open two apps next to each other in a split view and to collect several apps in a small view on the side with "Slide Over" and swipe them in as required. The latter in particular is appreciated by many iPad users.
(Image:Â Mac & i)
Windows and Stage Manager for all iPads
With iPadOS 26, there is still a simple basic mode with only full-screen apps to choose from. There is also the new window mode with free window design. Alternatively, the previously introduced window management Stage Manager can also be activated, which allows apps or windows to be grouped together.
Stage Manager now also runs on iPads without Apple's M chip, which previously did not support it. In an interview, Apple's head of software Craig Federighi pointed out that the new window system works much more efficiently and that the company was therefore able to abandon the previous restriction to iPads with M chips. According to Federighi, windows on iPads have to respond immediately to finger input, which is technically much more challenging than on a Mac.
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Split View as a hidden option in iPadOS 26
Although Split View no longer exists as a stand-alone mode, it is included in the free window mode: if the user pushes one window to the right and another window to the left, this view is created again – together with a small bar to adjust the division. Apple itself demonstrated this at the WWDC keynote. However, there is no counterpart for the slide-over view in iPadOS 26, at least not in the first beta.
iPadOS 26 removes several annoying limitations of the tablet operating system in one fell swoop. Instead of creating new stand-alone solutions for the iPad, Apple has simply taken its cue from macOS and adopted tried-and-tested elements such as the menu bar. In other respects, however, iPadOS remains limited in terms of virtualization, system extension tools and app distribution channels.
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