- iPados’s scene manager -The feature comes to more iPads
- That could improve multitasking features for iPad users
- But iPados 26 brings even better features to iPad than stage manager
If you are a fan of multitasking on any of the best iPads, you were probably heard of seeing all the new features that Apple brought to iPados 26 at its worldwide developer conference (WWDC). But while these additions are sure to make a splash of productivity users, the company also expands the existing stage manager feature to even more iPads.
In case you missed it, the stage manager allows you to group apps into sets and then switch between these sets as needed. It is designed to help you focus on a task and all the windows you need to complete it, then switch to another task and group of apps after. It is available on both iPados and macOS.
With iPados 26, Stage Manager will be available on more iPads than before. Previously, it only worked on 13-inch iPad Pro with M4 Chip, 12.9-inch iPad Pro (third generation or later), 11-inch iPad Pro (first generation or later) and iPad Air (fifth generation or later).
As noted on Reddit, in addition to these tablets, stage manager now also works with the third generation of iPad Air or later (not just the fifth generation model), iPad Mini (fifth generation or later) and entry-level iPad (eighth generation or later). Essentially, the stage manager works with any iPad that can run iPados 26.
Better than stage manager
Stage Manager has proven to be a somewhat divisive feature since it was released-not helped by a buggy launch and it is struggled to establish itself as a must-have element in iPados. Although I was first fascinated by it, I quickly found that the stage manager was a little half -baked and it never became a regular part of my setup on either my iPad or my Mac.
What seems to be far more interesting is the range of productivity tools that Apple has added iPados 26. It includes a Mac-like menu bar, full overlapping app support, window that changes size and even the “traffic lights” buttons used to close, minimize or maximize app windows. Especially window tiling is an excellent addition to the iPad as you get much more window position settings than just using an older feature like Split View.
Being able to use an iPad like a Mac offers much more appeal to me than stage manager. This is partly because the Mac-like interface is just much more known to anyone who has used a computer before is no new system to learn as there is with stage manager. And getting these new tools now makes it much more comfortable to work on the go with my iPad as I no longer need to sacrifice capacity in the name of portability.
Still, with stage manager coming to more iPads than before, it could still find an audience among Apple fans who have never had access to it. In any case, combined with the iPados 26’s new multitasking features, it is clear that Apple is taking productivity and user -bonding control a little more seriously.
