iPadOS 15 review: Multitasking for all and widgets unleashed

Our Verdict

iPadOS 15 is a major upgrade that will brand multitasking easier for all on the iPad.

For

• Multitasking push is a huge upgrade
• Widgets on the habitation screen — finally
• Notes is a lot more than capable
• Alive Text is pretty cool
• FaceTime SharePlay is what we've been waiting for

Against

• Waiting to see Universal Control
• No SharePlay all the same either

Tom'due south Guide Verdict

iPadOS 15 is a major upgrade that will make multitasking easier for all on the iPad.

Pros

• +

  Multitasking button is a huge upgrade

• +

  Widgets on the habitation screen — finally

• +

  Notes is a lot more than capable

• +

  Live Text is pretty absurd

• +

  FaceTime SharePlay is what we've been waiting for

Cons

• -

  Waiting to run into Universal Control

• -

  No SharePlay all the same either

I've been testing out the iPadOS 15 for months now, and I'm pretty happy with information technology. In fact, when it was in beta, I practically forgot information technology was in beta. The new multitasking push is going to exist a game-changer for everyday users, and the inflow of widgets all over the abode screen and the App Library are crucial. Aye, I beloved iPadOS 15 even if it didn't deliver my dream wish.

No, I'k non the type to say macOS should be in the iPad. At least not yet. I simply want sandboxing to change a bit, and then apps could work together and non side-by-side. Merely for this iPadOS xv review, I will explicate why this year's update is dandy — and what I'one thousand waiting for Apple to evangelize.

• How to stop Safari from changing colors in iOS 15, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12
• The best tablets you can buy now
• Plus: Here's how to download iPadOS xv at present

iPadOS 15 review: Release dates

Apple released iPadOS fifteen to the general public on Monday, Sept. twenty, and here's how to download iPadOS 15 now. The kickoff public iPadOS 15 beta came out on June thirty, just slightly ahead of Apple's July 2020 estimation.

iPadOS 15 review: Compatibility and supported devices

iPadOS fifteen supports all of the aforementioned iPads equally iPadOS 14.

Here is the below list of supported iPads, as confirmed past Apple tree.

• The regular iPad, from the 2017 5th Gen model to the x.2-inch iPad 2020
• All iPad Pro models including:
• iPad Pro 2021 (12.nine-inch)
• iPad Pro 2021 (eleven-inch)
• The iPad Air 2020 (4th generation), tertiary gen. and 2d gen.
• iPad mini (4th and 5th generation)

iPadOS 15 review: Stability and bugginess

Now that iPadOS xv has exited its betas, we are happy to study that it's been quite stable. We haven't found a big pain point yet, but yous should nevertheless google your favorite apps and iPadOS fifteen "Photoshop iPadOS 15" for instance, to come across what others are reporting.

iPadOS 15 review: New features (and what'southward not at that place notwithstanding)

Not all of the big new features have been bachelor for testing. Most notably Universal Control — the ability to command a Mac and iPad using the same keyboard and mouse — is all the same absent. Besides, SharePlay is no longer active. It'southward coming back in a future release this autumn.

Here are the big features of iPadOS xv, and how they work:

iPadOS 15 review: Multitasking upgrades

Every bit I said afterward I first saw what iPadOS xv looks similar, this is one of the near important iPad updates ever. Why's that? Well, it's easier than ever to learn how to utilise Split View and Slide Over views for using multiple apps. Plus, iPadOS 15 fixes a huge multitasking flaw that wasn't exactly obvious either.

It all starts with the Multitasking push button, a 3-dot icon at the peak of every app window. Tapping that push button shows you three options for how y'all could view the app currently open: full-screen, Split View and Slide Over. Before, users had to sort of discover these methods of shrinking and adjusting app windows, past dragging and dropping the black bar at the pinnacle of windows around, and seeing what happened.

(Paradigm credit: Apple)

In iPadOS 15, they've now got that familiar three-dot app icon, which has been used in apps, such as Chrome, for years. It signifies options, and it should be much more inviting to tap and use. And when yous tap the split view button, y'all get a welcome sight: your entire dwelling house screen, including the doc and its App Library button.

Now, you'll exist able to split screen with any app you want, not just those in the dock. Previously, yous needed a paired keyboard and know that you can notice and apply apps via Spotlight search to apply whatsoever app that wasn't in your dock.

But not all of Apple tree'southward new multitasking changes have go immediate favorites. There's now a "Shelf" of recently opened pages and documents that y'all meet upon opening some apps. I've nonetheless to find this to help me get dorsum to what I was doing, but I wonder if that will come with more apps updating for iPadOS xv, and doing more with it.

(Image credit: Apple)

Apple's philosophy is plain "meliorate to wait and go information technology correct than to go it out the door every bit fast as possible." Or at least that would explain why iOS 14 allow you put widgets anywhere on the home screen and use the App Library for hiding apps you don't need — and iPadOS 14 did not.

Fortunately, these features have finally arrived, a year later, in iPadOS 15. And I've quickly realized how valuable they are on the iPad, immigration my entire habitation screen of app icons to supervene upon them with widgets. This way, I've got all the apps I need in my dock, while the Spotify, Apple Music, Apple News, Hello Weather, Clock, Flighty, Todoist, Fantastical and Photos widgets make my home screen look like one giant control center. Just come across for yourself:

(Image credit: Apple)

Y'all may also notice that iPadOS introduces an even larger widget size than was previously bachelor, which is perfect for the Photos app.

And and so at that place'southward the App Library, a department that automatically organizes all of your apps by category with sections for recently added and recommended apps. This screen is made for people who don't want to have screens and screens of app icons — and I am one of those folks.

(Image credit: Apple tree)

But even improve, you don't need to manually hibernate apps to the App Library one by one. Hold down an app or widget to edit your habitation screen, then tap the screens oval at the bottom of the screen. This is where yous'll see all of your different home screen pages, and y'all tin easily send a screen of apps to the app library by clicking the minus (-) push. Y'all can also united nations-cheque a screen to temporarily hide information technology.

The App Library is also found in the dock, equally the icon on the far right that looks like a folder of apps.

iPadOS 15 review: Safari's changes have changed

Originally, back in the betas, iPadOS fifteen changed a lot about Safari. So Apple responded to feedback accordingly. The tabs bar is now its own row under the URL/search field again, and the Reload button is dorsum.

This is what Safari on the iPad looks like now. (Image credit: Apple)

As I said in the original version of this review, "That's a lot of change. Some of it volition prove divisive." And Apple's class-corrected accordingly.

This is what information technology looked like before this summertime. (Image credit: Apple tree)

I'm not a fan of the color-matching feature, where Safari changes its colors like a chameleon to match the site you're on, and then I'm glad y'all can disable information technology — check out our guide for how to stop Safari from changing colors in iOS xv, iPadOS 15 and macOS 12.

iPadOS xv review: Keyboard upgrades

The iPad isn't just for consuming content, and anyone who uses the iPad Magic Keyboard or an external Bluetooth keyboard tin can tell you that. And so, Apple's upgraded the keyboard shortcuts menus and added more keyboard shortcuts.

(Image credit: Apple)

Check information technology all out for yourself past holding down Control when you've connected a keyboard. You lot'll besides notice that the keyboard shortcuts are now organized by kind, in a very traditional style that may remind you of macOS.

It groups them by titles such as File, Edit Format and View (for the Notes app), which fabricated me experience similar Apple tree's realizing that the Menu bar from macOS should have life on the iPad, even if it's not bringing the Menu bar with it. This is neat, but non something I found will modify my iPad usage in a groovy manner.

iPadOS xv review: Notes gets supercharged

For a while, I've ever used the tertiary-party notetaking app Behave for my long-form writing on the iPad, iPhone and other devices. That may change, as iPadOS xv makes  Notes a very helpful tool that works alongside apps in a fashion we've never seen: as a floating window.

Now, if you flick up from the bottom right corner of your screen with the Apple tree Pencil or your finger, y'all'll have access to a Quick Note that you tin can write or draw in. And the Quick Notes themselves just exist in a square-shaped floating window that will pop back up if y'all open the same website or app over again.

(Image credit: Apple tree)

I didn't actually "get" Quick Notes at first, simply then I establish my own reason to use them. After the World Health Organisation announced new guidance for social distancing and confront masks even for those who are vaccinated — based on the Delta variant of Covid-xix — I realized I needed to collect data on everything the experts were maxim. And so, I pulled up a Quick Note to add in links from manufactures pertaining to the Delta variant. Adding text to a Quick Note, with attribution, is easy. You simply highlight the text on screen, and select Add to Quick Note from the pop-up, next to Share.

You tin now sort by hashtags, so every note I have that has #cenaphiles in it can exist found in the tags section of the navigation menu, so I can easily organize the testify notes I accept for my absurd podcast where we review John Cena's movies. This is one of my favorite features in the same Deport app, and ane I'grand happy to see here.

(Paradigm credit: Apple tree)

Lastly, anyone who shares documents in the Notes app now has an Activity View mode. Information technology'due south found by tapping the More button and so tapping Evidence Notation Activity. Here, you tin can see who edited what part of your document when, which can be helpful when you're trying to figure out who asked for an item on the shopping list or any other question about why your annotation was edited.

(Image credit: Future)

SharePlay in iPadOS 15, iOS 15, tvOS 15 and macOS 12 — which has been postponed from an immediate launch to one in the near future — is the feature I've needed for the unabridged terminal twelvemonth. Instead of having to hand sync remote-viewings by group countdown and talk to each other in a separate app, you'll be able to share video and audio from select applications all within FaceTime.

When nosotros tested it out with an episode of Ted Lasso, my colleagues watched on iPhones as I hosted the viewing on an iPad. Yous just start a FaceTime call, then open a supported app such equally Apple TV or Disney Plus (which volition be working on Twenty-four hour period 1 this fall, only seemed to non have that feature still), and then yous'll just outset watching together. People tin pause the show or song, and anybody's stream will interruption. It just works.

(Image credit: Apple)

Unless, that is, you're trying to picket something on a service that only some people on your FaceTime call don't subscribe to (not everyone wants to pay for Apple TV). Or watch a picture show that has to be purchased on its own (not everyone owns Goodfellas). Those limitations are to be expected, equally a kind of copy protection or digital rights management.

FaceTime at present also has Apple'due south Spatial Sound, provided you lot have supported audio equipment. So, on my AirPods Pro I heard Jordan and Phil talking from either side of the screen, which made sense as they were in grid view.

SharePlay will also work on tvOS 15, where you will start the call on your iPhone, iPad or Mac, then add the music or video service y'all use. Then, go to your Apple TV, open that same app and sentinel it sync on your Television set before you remove the streaming app from your phone screen, so your phone tin just do the FaceTime part of your call and you go to sentry everything on your TV.

iPadOS 15 review: Figuring out Focuses

So far, I've not really found a demand for Focuses, the new notification-adjusting statuses introduced in iPadOS 15 and all of Apple's other OS updates this yr.

I'm simply used to using the "silence them all" Practice Non Disturb setting, the all-or-nothing ban hammer that mutes everything. And that'due south partially because of how Focuses requires y'all to opt-in and not opt-out of notifications from people and apps. For example, when I set up my Work Focus for when I'm trying to be the most productive me I can be, I selected my parents for who could alienation the wall of notifications and my agenda and e-mail apps for what could send me notifications.

(Image credit: Apple)

You, yourself, can even featherbed someone else'due south Focus, but y'all'll know you're doing information technology. When I texted my friend Caitlin, the Messages app showed her status "Caitlin has notifications silenced with Focus," then showed me my text was "Delivered Quietly" — while giving me an pick to Notify Anyway. I did, and she told me it worked subsequently on in the day.

Personally, I'd rather the Focus settings permit you hide specific people and applications, equally I don't need Twitch alerts during the work day, but I do want to brand sure people can accomplish me, even if they don't always have an important reason to call.

(Epitome credit: Apple tree)

Apple tree includes an choice for fourth dimension sensitive notifications to come through, so you lot don't miss anything super-critical. iPadOS explains this selection as something to "allow apps to deliver of import notifications immediately, even when you have a Focus turned on," and it'southward probable using its ain AI smarts to deduce what merits interruption and what does non. I oasis't found this to make a mistake still.

iPadOS 15 review: Privacy

One thing that's ever squeamish to accept in the Apple ecosystem is an plain stronger set of privacy controls than you get elsewhere. In iPadOS 15 (as well as the other platforms) you go a few new tricks to cease snoopers.

The biggest feature hither is Mail Privacy Protection, which has already sent shivers up the world of newsletter makers — for its attempts to stop senders from learning if y'all opened letters or not. Information technology also seeks to cease them from finding out your IP accost, in instance yous're worried that could exist used to observe your location.

So, for those with iCloud subscriptions, you get iCloud+. No, it's non another subscription service. It'due south a set up of privacy and online tools that you may or may non discover peachy. The headlining feature is iCloud Private Relay, Apple's online privacy tool that may sound like a VPN — but is not a VPN. This tech "relays" your data in Safari through two separate internet relays, to obscure your online activeness from your ISP. Information technology's not a VPN because information technology doesn't work with all of the information in your iPad (just Safari), and you lot can't specify the region you lot want to appear to be connecting from — a acme characteristic for those who want a VPN to admission geo-restricted streaming services.

As information technology e'er does, Apple tree'south giving iPadOS xv a lot of features you'll also find in macOS Monterey and iOS 15. That includes a much more detailed Apple Maps, including earth-views and the ability to pin nearby transit lines as a favorite.

The Photos app, nether For You, has a section called Shared With You, that pulls in photos you've been sent by people in other apps over the years. It proved to be a welcome stroll downwardly memory lane for friends' weddings and birthdays and my regrettable facial hair. Also, Live Text, that power to select text seen in photos and copy and paste it out into other apps, is really absurd.

(Paradigm credit: Apple tree)

As seen higher up, yous can easily grab all the ingredients out of a product and then use them notwithstanding yous need to. Google'due south offered a similar text recognition feature in the past, in Google Lens.

Home screen notifications are also getting improved, showing the photos of people texting y'all and giving you the option for digests of the recently received messages — so you're not always interrupted.

The Reminders app is getting tagging, to assistance you amend organize your to practise lists, Apple's as well adding new Memoji options, including wear, headwear and glasses.

iPadOS 15 review: Outlook

I am pretty happy overall with iPadOS 15, and recommend that those fix to take a little risk download it today. That said, the true power of the new multitasking features will be great in the fall when everyday users become them and learn how to better divide their screen. Power users probably know how to split up the screen already, though they will likely savor some of the other new features. Plus, more apps will support SharePlay by then, which is great.

Also, between the new Keyboard Shortcuts window and the floating Quick Note window, iPadOS 15 gives promise to those who want iPadOS to grow to be more than like macOS. Yes, the new iPad Pro has the M1 chip then Apple could do more than on it, but the folks at Cupertino seem to be happier with gradual improvements twelvemonth over twelvemonth, rather than shaking everything upwards besides fast. And I don't hate it.

Heck, I've got my own wish for the iPad that didn't come true this year. I just want some apps like voice memos to piece of work with other apps similar Skype, for podcasting on the go. Maybe, someday, that could happen. Heck, folks who want to use more than than iii apps at once (moving picture-in-picture makes four) have reason to be optimistic, equally Quick Notes could open up a whole new dynamic for windowed iPad apps. For now, though, I'll say information technology again: iPadOS xv looks like one of the virtually important iPad updates ever.

Henry is a senior editor at Tom's Guide roofing streaming media, laptops and all things Apple, reviewing devices and services for the past half dozen-plus years. Prior to joining Tom'due south Guide, he reviewed software and hardware for TechRadar Pro, and interviewed artists for Patek Philippe International Magazine. He's also covered the wild world of professional wrestling for Cageside Seats, interviewing athletes and other industry veterans.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/ipados-15

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