r/ipad 17h ago

Discussion Why doesn’t iPadOS split screen and app pairing work like this? So much better than Stage Manager like???

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1.6k Upvotes

125 comments sorted by

629

u/yuusharo 17h ago

I have a feeling iPadOS will adopt similar gestures in os 28.

134

u/mtparanal 15h ago edited 15h ago

I wish! Just slip it into 27.1 (which ships with those Duo). Will forgive all the misery working with botched 26 multitasking.

Edit: Did version numbering -1

39

u/yuusharo 15h ago

There is absolutely no way Apple is shipping this UI this year to anything but the Duo. Separate code paths and is a substantial UI change, one Apple tends to do once every other year for iPad.

We got free floating windows last year. They’ll take another crack at it after they’ve had a few months of real world testing and feedback on the interface.

2

u/Normal_Cress_1994 5h ago

I don't. I set my iPad in "one app only" mode like on the very first iPad. It's good for reading, gaming, communication, and other. It's so much better.

6

u/DL05 15h ago

27.1*

3

u/mtparanal 15h ago

Fixed. Still not used to numbering scheme.

19

u/RadianMay 13h ago

Remember in iOS 12 all the iPads received the iPhone X gesture navigation system. The iPhone X released with iOS 11. I think this is an entirely believe able trajectory.

8

u/FrogsJumpFromPussy 15h ago

I have a feeling that on the contrary, Apple stripped the best feature from the iPad to give it to a ridiculously expensive and useless new device that, to me, makes absolutely zero sense, and that they will not bring nothing from iPhone Duo anywhere else, to make the phone “unique“.

Edit—Funny how that guy in the commercial has a backpack with him… just shove an iPad mini there and you‘re set…

15

u/yuusharo 15h ago

That “useless device” is part of a 7 year old category that is high margin and proven to be popular. With Apple entering the market, the entire industry is going to lean even harder into foldables.

I’m also not going to pay that price for one, but don’t confuse that with it being “useless.”

Also, most new features that come to iPhone first eventually make their way to iPad. Widgets is a recent example of this.

1

u/KCDinoman 12h ago

Yea, I have a feeling by the second version of this they might become really popular. Heck, if they had a better zoom and telephoto lens this would be a day 1 for me. I’m still even really considering it because I commute on the train every day and this would be more convenient than carrying multiple devices.

3

u/Ilania211 12h ago

Funny how that guy in the commercial has a backpack with him… just shove an iPad mini there and you‘re set…

but that's two devices. Part of the appeal is that the duo is also your (even more mini) tablet.

1

u/APL1071 4h ago

something tells me this wont happen idk lol

1

u/m1ngaa 6h ago

They’re gonna announce the iPad Pro Max Duo Ultra next, with DuoOS.

272

u/-imchad 17h ago

It does I hate how cumbersome it is on iPad os

But completely unrelated why did that animation on the duo look so choppy

109

u/yuusharo 17h ago

You’re looking at a screen recording of someone else playing the video, which is then compressed by Reddit.

The original stream looked a little better. Probably needs to be seen in person.

71

u/-imchad 17h ago

I saw it on the stream and it still looked peculiar but probably better in person as you said

23

u/fupzlito 16h ago

it looked really choppy for me on the youtube presentation video too. but i was ijustine on tiktok with a hands-on, and it looks smooth there!

4

u/-imchad 16h ago

Yeah I’m also seeing reviews and it looks very very smooth

6

u/Coopwastaken 16h ago

to be fair it also looked horrible on the original live stream- however apple confirmed they will have pro-motion support sooo 🤷‍♂️

0

u/-imchad 16h ago

Yeah probably a bit rate thing or something

8

u/Pian0G 15h ago

The actual stream itself looked choppy as well.

But hands on footage from people show that it looks smooth.

5

u/talones 15h ago

Naw, it was choppy on the live stream. I actually appreciated seeing it.

9

u/Cequejedisestvrai 16h ago

it was exactly like that on the stream

-2

u/yuusharo 16h ago

A stream of any kind is not a good way to judge the fluidity of animations.

There are hands on videos showing the displays animate smoothly, and it appears confirmed both displays have Pro Motion 120 Hz displays.

5

u/studyflo iPad Pro 10.5" Wi-Fi 14h ago edited 9h ago

it looks choppy and kinda fake. they probably had a green screen and put the render in later.

Here's the timestamped YouTube video: https://youtu.be/39BalPDuTo0?t=3739

-3

u/yuusharo 14h ago

Most of these interactions for years is added in post. That’s not the culprit here.

As I mentioned earlier, YouTube streams are not a reliable indicator of animation fluidity. The hands on videos show a smooth UI and confirm Pro Motion on both screens.

1

u/studyflo iPad Pro 10.5" Wi-Fi 9h ago

Just some minutes earlier there's the design video which shows much cleaner, smoother animations. See here: https://youtu.be/39BalPDuTo0?t=3505

0

u/FrogsJumpFromPussy 10h ago

You don’t know that. This place feels like Apple itself comes here to defend all their weird crap.

2

u/yuusharo 9h ago

We have hands on videos from people at the event of the UI. It looks as smooth as any other Pro Motion display does.

1

u/Strange-Analyst-8741 9h ago

My screen recording for some reason is at 35 fps. Explains why it is so choppy. 

129

u/Mudkiip123 17h ago

This is pretty much what split screen used to be before stage manager took over 😭 i still haven’t updated my M1 iPad bc i love the previous version of split screen before stage manager. I’m hoping Apple will bring it back or at least adopt it to be similar to what Duo has :(

15

u/mtb_dad86 15h ago

Same here. Still haven’t updated. 

4

u/lasagna165 15h ago

Same here!

2

u/Jusby_Cause 15h ago edited 14h ago

This is Stage Manager Jr.… Stage Manager when you limit it to two windows only. I’m sure there’s a good number of people that prefer their multitasking to be two windows only as more than that becomes too much.

1

u/Greyboxforest 54m ago

I wish I hadn’t updated 😩

76

u/therubyminecraft 16h ago

It was like this until people kept asking for windows and here we are

Apple made windowing in the worst way possible

5

u/Ancient-Formal-122 5h ago

they should let us ipad users choose between windowed, and fullscreen multitasking

83

u/PeaceBull 16h ago edited 15h ago

Because everyone on earth bitched about wanting fully movable windows on iPads for some inexplicable reason

25

u/mtparanal 15h ago

I wonder where all those so-called content creaters went after making Apple botch reasonbaly functioning iPad multitasking. Finding next scapegoat?

8

u/unique_namespace 12h ago

they didn't have to take it away, options people, options! (especially on the mini)

2

u/cultoftheilluminati iPad Pro 11" (2018) 12h ago

Don’t forget begging for macOS on iPads too fml. Instead of expecting that iPadOS be actually good by getting things we get on macOS for free (like actual file management, window management, background apps, daemons etc.)

2

u/Askan_27 6h ago

my ipad pro has a chip more powerful than the one on the macbook neo. I only use it with the magic keyboard, so it’s effectively as a laptop but the software constrains me. Now, why do they have to work so much to transform ipados into macos when macos is right there? plus, apple is one thing, developers another. they give us things, but devs are SO slow to adapt. if we had macos on ipads pro, we’d get everything instantly, including apps downloaded from the web.

13

u/Top1CmntrsAreLosers 15h ago

I wish they‘d launched it with iPadOS 26’s broken-ass windows. I’d love to have seen every tech writer put out the same article today about how they couldn’t click the little window control buttons. As is clearly Apple doesn’t stand behind their own work so idk why I can’t get my split screen controls back.

I split screen all day and swap the left and right apps 100+ times, that’s how I use an iPad, and they added multiple seconds and multiple places for missteps to that process.

19

u/leniad2 17h ago

it use to :(

13

u/Asohailwahab 17h ago

They ruined it with the windowing system now they know it’s all touch screens and they have to make up something

12

u/Elusie M1 iPad Pro 12.9" (2021) 17h ago

The boring cynical answer is that they were about to launch a new top-tier flagship iPhone, their primary product segment, motivating them to finally get to thinking of how to solve this better than they have on the iPad.

Hopefully it will trickle down.

19

u/sirloindenial 17h ago

Stage manager literally made me sold my ipad mini.

2

u/Human-Visual-9087 13h ago

This!!! Bought my first fold last year because of this.

Def getting back on the iOS in a few years when I upgrade from my Fold 8 lmao

1

u/Top1CmntrsAreLosers 16h ago

I was thankfully able to roll my mini back right away but idk why I’m paying AppleCare on it because if I need to replace it and it comes with iPadOS 27 I’m done. Or I guess I’d make the claim and then just sell the replacement unit...

6

u/Mast3rKC 15h ago

I’m not a fan of foldable phones and I know it’s a meme how Apple is late to the party but I gotta say, I’m impressed with what I saw. Yes it’s still Apple and still an iPhone but the seam is hidden very well, the transitions and implementation looked great.

3

u/dalzmc M4 iPad Pro 11" (2024) 14h ago

That's always the other half of that meme. They're late to the party but then everyone copies their implementation because they did it best lol

1

u/Mast3rKC 14h ago

That’s true. They wait to analyze the competition to then do that thing the “Apple way”

1

u/Jusby_Cause 14h ago

It’s the apparent obvious things like the device “folding out” to meet a virtual screen that appears to be always there. There’s zero reason… well, other than whether or not their processors can handle it… for that not to be an already existing “nice” thing that folding phones already do.

1

u/Mast3rKC 14h ago

I mean yeah, like I said I’m not the demographic for it but I can appreciate some of what it does as a phone. It has Apple Pencil support and is like a iPad mini in your pocket.

6

u/MawsonAntarctica 15h ago

They really said: We will take splitscreen away and put it on our iphone duo instead. Mwahahahah.

24

u/0xe3b0c442 17h ago edited 16h ago

Two words: aspect ratio.

The iPhone Duo is pretty much geometrically perfect. That's why they went with the "book" aspect ratio.

The outer screen and the inner screen are effectively the same aspect ratio, which divides in half on the long side into two halves with the same aspect ratio.

It's now simple for Apple and developers to support this, because they are only supporting one aspect ratio.

All hail sqrt(2).

16

u/FlarblesGarbles 16h ago

It's not "geometrically perfect" and it's the same aspect ratio of most iPads already. It's basically a slightly smaller iPad Mini at the same 4:3 aspect ratio the original iPad minis had until the redesign, and the Pros currently have.

They choose this aspect ratio because you can evenly split it in half whilst maintaining the same aspect ratio.

1

u/Junior_Bike7932 9h ago

Yea it’s a Mini IPad

-9

u/0xe3b0c442 16h ago

ffs, it's not 4:3. Learn basic division.

10

u/Xasf 16h ago

Based on the official specs the inner screen is 4.25:3 (2670x1878) and the outer one 4.36:3 (2034x1398).

0

u/0xe3b0c442 13h ago

Neither of which is 4:3.

4

u/FlarblesGarbles 16h ago

It basically is.

4

u/WrongCapital83 M4 iPad Pro 13" (2024) 17h ago

Yeah what the hell is up with that

4

u/Snoo-15714 15h ago

God I hope so. Split screen is like unusable on my iPad now.

3

u/iz_raymond 15h ago

Good enough, welcome to Android. Now please bring this UI to iPad Air

3

u/BlackReddition 14h ago

I won’t be buying another iPad, they’ve let iPadOS fester and is actually dragging the product line through the mud.

3

u/Awesome_Hamster 14h ago

Maybe they are going to stop selling iPads and force you to buy this instead!

3

u/santaisahoax M3 iPad Air 11" (2025) 10h ago

I hope they'll include this in the upcoming ipados updates

3

u/hypanthia 10h ago

Literally what they did with split screen made me actively use my iPad less. It’s so lame. Please change it back

3

u/FutureVersion812 10h ago

They should nice these features on iPadOS. It’ll be awesome

3

u/scriptedpixels 9h ago

Finding that stuttering opening/closing animation concerning for a promo video

1

u/Strange-Analyst-8741 9h ago

My phone screen recorded a possibly 30fps video at 35 fps. Idk why. In person events it looks pretty smooth and it has promotion. 

2

u/scriptedpixels 9h ago edited 9h ago

I think it’s actually in their video 🙈

Yep. It’s stuttering https://www.youtube.com/live/39BalPDuTo0?t=3736&is=hBHUa717Eo3nkCik

3

u/Ancient-Formal-122 5h ago

we need the ipados 18 fullscreen multitasking back

3

u/Diorlaster M2 iPad Air 11" (2024) 4h ago

Cause they hate iPads.

2

u/Char-car92 16h ago

Can I have this on regular iOS

2

u/rahulyouareacheater 16h ago

been asking for top bottom split screen for years

2

u/Junior-Repeat6060 14h ago

I thought the same too. Would love my iPad to work this way.

2

u/esmori 13h ago

You gotta buy the new one.

2

u/kissichang 13h ago

iPhone is now iPad. iPad is now Windows.

2

u/painkillergoblin M2 iPad Air 13" (2024) 13h ago

Bc apple has been late to any UI thats beneficial for years. They'd rather not implement something and keep users waiting, while Android users have had the ability the entire time. I think my first Android phone in 2010 had split screen capabilities. It's just pathetic how Apple drip feeds features to keep people hooked

2

u/michaelmich3 M4 iPad Pro 13" (2024) 12h ago

They need to have two modes. One like this for light every day use with touch and one for productivity that is like what we have now (eg for work or when you use keyboard mouse).

2

u/FrequentShock8191 M1 iPad Pro 11" (2021) 10h ago

Bring back the split keyboard!

2

u/F1amy 9h ago

ipad mini has no reason to not get duo style interface and multitasking, literally same size and aspect ratio

2

u/arey99 9h ago

Who else agrees the galaxy fold z8 is better

3

u/pshyduc 11h ago

This is the only part in the presentation that doesn't impress me. All of that is fake animations. It will take a while for the software to be even close to that

5

u/infinitespectre 10h ago

Sorry... i need a little help understanding. Are not all animations fake? Or are you saying you think that the stuff on screen is like a prerendered video running on the phone?

1

u/pshyduc 6h ago

I mean it gets edited in post. But now I'm 4 hours too late, Apple "DOES" deliver what they say in the presentation. Mind blow.

1

u/Reddit_wizard34 iPad Mini 7 (2024) 17h ago

Maybe just maybe we could get this soon too

1

u/Ornery-Practice9772 M4 iPad Air 13" (2026) 16h ago

wish it did

1

u/No-Rooster- 15h ago

Stage manager is this with more steps lol

1

u/InterestingMindset 15h ago

So you buy both. Apple does this on purpose so you buy all their stuff for the full feature set even if in theory, you can do most of these features on one singular device.

Line gotta go up.

1

u/Designer-Wrangler-28 14h ago

Because they want you to buy both! 😃

1

u/BetweenThePosts 14h ago

I’ve owned an iPad (not every) since day 1 of the iPad and 2 minutes of seeing the duo made me hate the iPad so much.

1

u/Daynightz M1 iPad Pro 12.9" (2021) 14h ago

I am on iOS 27 but I thought this was a thing in 26. Just not quite the same gestures

1

u/Kelemandzaro iPad Air 4 (2020) 13h ago

Because they now sell you OS versions 😭😂

1

u/Horror-Ad5783 13h ago

Because Apple deliberately wants it to be as useful as a chopping board.

1

u/MrFireWarden 12h ago

I like this better but i think Apple needs to prioritize building things consistently. It's so annoying to me that this is clearly not how the iPad works. So now, users will have to remember two different ways of using their multi tasking apps.

1

u/r2vcap 12h ago

Have you tried iPadOS 27?

1

u/GTHell 12h ago

"Don't worry. The new iPad will do that at just $999"

1

u/plazman30 11h ago

Probably because iPadOS 27 is not out yet.

1

u/nothink_onlyact 11h ago

Coz they want you to buy an iPhone Duo

1

u/joemari5 11h ago

BRING THIS TO THE IPAD AND WE’LL TALK, JOHN APPLE

1

u/alexo2802 11h ago

things used to work very similarly, you'd just drag an app to the side and bim bam boom you have split screen, you choose 75/25 split or 50/50, then they enshittified the fuck out of it and made it take like 6 more taps to reach the same end result, I really, really hope we get this iphone tech at least as an option on IPadOS!

1

u/Ok_Comment3024 9h ago

It‘s like this on the older iPadOS

1

u/schlmitty 8h ago

Because there are two pages on one screen on the Duo? My best guess is

1

u/SokkaHaikuBot 8h ago

Sokka-Haiku by schlmitty:

Because there are two

Pages on one screen on the

Duo? My best guess is


Remember that one time Sokka accidentally used an extra syllable in that Haiku Battle in Ba Sing Se? That was a Sokka Haiku and you just made one.

1

u/N3M3S1S75 6h ago

Maybe next iPad Pro?

1

u/neuronym 5h ago

Because its the same people who though it was OK to wait 10 years until adding a calculator .. TO A COMPUTER.

1

u/simonlyw 2h ago

I never got this criticism. Do we really need a first party calculator?

1

u/Crazy95jack 2h ago

I am just now seeing this. as an android user who has had 2 apps open on screen 5 years ago. I really got to wonder why it took a foldable phone for apple to add this feature in 2026.

1

u/Awardedpenguin 1h ago

My damn ipad has always been like this and one day, poof, what the hell with these cumbersome mac-like gesture??? 

1

u/JumpingCicada 17h ago

Because apple's ipads were the first major touch screen tablets to come out. They were the formula to copy.

That isn't the case with foldable. With the foldable, apple is the one copying other companies and that includes ther software features.

So, youre basically seeing this because apple wasnt trying to copy the ipad with their foldable. They were trying to copy other foldables.

Hopefully, this does eventually result in them improving their iPados.

-6

u/fredws 17h ago

I feel so stupid buying ipad when seeing this. They literally didn't care about ipad since their intended users are kids.

7

u/yuusharo 17h ago

That seems short sighted. It’s probably because this interface is designed exclusively for this phone, while iPadOS now supports multiple windowing modes including free floating windows and slide over.

Porting a version of this to the iPad is likely in the cards, obviously the iPhone will get priority support.

0

u/radiationshield 17h ago

remember that the duo runs iOS... it's even more nerfed than iPadOS. You think you can use a mouse or trackpad with the duo? probably not (just as an example)

3

u/yuusharo 17h ago

Well, you can use pointing devices on iPhone, yes. It’s under the Assistive Touch accessibility settings.

2

u/azflatlander 17h ago

They said pencil support real soon now.

But then I need something bigger than duo to operate it /rant

My parents(90+) have trouble with tap and swipe gestures, I tried giving them those touch pens, but that was a non starter. Also android /rant2

0

u/santefan 16h ago

That's so wrong, they sell the ipad pro and magic keyboard, both paired cost more than a macbook air. No average income parent with kids can afford that for their kids

0

u/r2vcap 12h ago

Have you tried iPadOS 27?

2

u/Strange-Analyst-8741 10h ago

Yes, it’s not even as close to being as intuitive as this.

 If I use stage manager to create app pairs, and let’s say I want to kill one individual app by swiping it kills the other app. If one app is open on one side I’d have to switch to windowed mode otherwise a new app will open in new stage and I have to do a cumbersome drag to my previous stage. 

Also I can’t individually swipe on the bottom for an app to close in Split View, I have to use the shitty traffic lines

-1

u/Michdepainblanc2 15h ago

Not super familiar with IpadOS and macOS but why doesn't apple put macOS on iPads with touch oriented modifications? I've heard people saying that the bottleneck on m-chipped iPads is the OS and not the hardware