Apple has finally started rolling out iPadOS 16, bringing several new features to compatible iPads. iPadOS 16 was expected to be released earlier this year, but was delayed by several weeks for unknown reasons. Apple confirmed the delay in late August when it announced that the next version of iPadOS would ship this fall as version 16.1 rather than the usual 16.0 public release. While Apple did not reveal the reason behind the delay, Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman claimed that the company needed more time to fine-tune the new Stage Manager feature.
The public release of iPadOS 16 will be available to several of Apple’s tablets, including all iPad Pro models, the 5th-gen iPad and up, the 5th-gen iPad mini and up, and the 3rd-gen iPad Air and up. The update brings many new features as expected from a major release, although some are reserved for iPads powered by the M1 or M2 chips, meaning iPads powered by the A-series processors will miss out on them.
As explained by Apple, the most notable new iPad feature is Stage Manager, which improves the multitasking experience on compatible iPads by adding true multi-window support to Apple’s tablets for the first time. Another iPadOS feature is full external display support instead of 4:3 screen mirroring. The feature isn’t available yet, but will come later this year. Once it’s here, Stage Manager will offer external display support with the correct aspect ratio, at up to 6K resolution. It will also let users run up to eight separate apps simultaneously, including four on the main display and four on the external one.
Other New iPadOS 16 Features
The latest version of iPadOS also improves the Messages app on iPads with the ability to edit and unsend sent messages, just like iOS 16. Another iOS 16 feature available in iPadOS 16 is SharePlay integration in the Messages app, enabling users listen to music, watch movies, or play videogames while messaging with their friends and family. Safari also gets updated with real-time tab-sharing and more customizable Tab Groups with different background images for each group. Additionally, security gets a leg up with Passkeys that allow users to safely sign in without passwords. Another notable new feature is the addition of a native weather app in iPadOS 16.
Live Text can now recognize text in videos, allowing users to quickly copy/paste and translate with just a few taps on a video. As if that’s not enough, Visual Lookup has also been expanded to recognize birds, insects, statues, and more. There’s also automatic background removal that allows users to tap on a subject within an image to isolate it from the background and then paste it in compatible apps like iMessage. Other iPadOS 16 features include Shared iCloud Photo Library, an updated Mail app with an unsend option, the ability to switch between voice, keyboard, and Apple Pencil in Dictation, and a redesigned Home app for more intuitively controlling smart home devices.
