Note: This post is based on what’s available in iPadOS 26 Developer Beta 1, and will evolve over the beta period as changes are made.

Edit 06/19/25: Clarified that you can actually hold the traffic light button control to bring up the window tiling options. You don’t have to hold the green button specifically.

iPadOS 26 brings big changes to Apple’s tablet operating system by revamping its multitasking model to more closely resemble traditional PCs. For iPadOS users accustomed to using Stage Manager, these changes won’t feel as drastic. For users accustomed to Split View and Slide Over or not using multitasking at all, these changes open up entirely new use cases for iPad.

Here’s how each multitasking mode works:

Full Screen Apps

This mode disables any attempt at windowed multitasking, and is the closest to the traditional way iPadOS apps have functioned prior to iPadOS 26. The main difference is that this mode no longer allows the traditional Split View and Slide Over windowing options.

The removal of these features raises an eyebrow at first, but if you’ve ever seen someone accidentally activate the Slide Over stack and get confused (I’ve seen it), this makes complete sense. Most iPad users will be perfectly happy in this mode, and should probably be the default, at least on the lower-end iPads.

Even though you don’t have windows in this mode, there are still multitasking capabilities. You’re still able to open multiple windows/instances of an app, they each open in their own workspace. You still have access to the Shelf for switching between your different open app instances. The new Background Tasks API works also in this mode. So even if you choose to use your iPad in this more focused mode, you still have access to many of the powerful capabilities of iPadOS.

Windowed Apps Mode

An iPad using Stage Manager could be easily mistaken for a Mac, and now with Windowed Apps Mode, the two platforms will be even harder to distinguish.

Windowed Apps Mode takes advantage of a rearchitected windowing system to allow for an “unlimited” amount of apps and windows to open in a single workspace. The first time you launch an app, it launches in full screen like you’re used to. You can then resize an app by using the drag handle on its bottom right corner to smoothly resize it to whatever size you want (no more snapping to specific window sizes).

Those windows trade the traditional Multitasking Menu (the three dots at the center top of each window) for the macOS-style traffic lights that let you close, minimize, or maximize a window, respectively. Tapping on the traffic lights enlarges them so they you can actually tap them with your finger.

The current state of developer beta 1 makes it difficult to determine what the maximum number of windows you can have open is, but I’ve seen some sites reporting that number is twelve on higher-end iPads (2024-2025 iPads and M-Series iPads). With the size of windows on iPadOS, it quickly becomes hard to keep track of all of them to test this, so I’m going to say the limit is unknown. It sounds like older iPads may be able to open the same amount of apps, but only four of them will be active at once.

To manage your now cluttered workspace, Apple has brought more macOS concepts to iPadOS.

Exposé

Exposé is a feature that gives you a bird’s-eye view of all of your open windows so you can select the one you want to bring to the forefront. On iPadOS, you enter Exposé by swiping up on the display with one finger (like you were trying to enter the app switcher) or swiping up with four fingers on a trackpad.

Window Snapping and Window Tiling

In landscape orientation, you can flick or drag windows to either side of the screen, and they’ll snap into place, taking up half the screen. This kind of emulates the dearly departed Split View feature. Weirdly, if you’re in portrait orientation, you can’t flick windows to the top and bottom of the display like you’d expect.

You can go further than window snapping with the built-in Window Tiling system. iPadOS now includes the same window tiling options that were introduced to the Mac in macOS 15. Tapping and holding the traffic light buttons shows your available tiling options to help you quickly build your ideal layout. This is a good way to build a vertical split between two apps with one on top of the other, which is something many of us have wanted for years.

Stage Manager

In iPadOS 26, Stage Manager somewhat unexpectedly, continues to exist as a standalone multitasking option. It even picks up some benefits due to the rearchitected windowing system. Launching an app still opens it in its own Stage, but you can now bring more than four apps into a Stage without the oldest app getting kicked out/minimized.

This makes it so Stage Manager on iPadOS essentially works the same way as it does on macOS, and probably how it should have worked from the beginning. You can build workspaces with as many apps as you need, and quickly switch between them. You get the benefits of Windowed Apps mode, but retain the organizational benefits that many people enjoy from Stage Manager. If you’ve given up on Stage Manager, it’s absolutely worth trying again with iPadOS 26.

Conclusion

Sure, having three multitasking options on iPadOS might seem overwhelming at first, but each one is designed to meet a specific need or cater to a unique audience.

Full Screen Apps is for users that enjoy the focused experience that makes iPad approachable to users of all ages and technical ability, and a great computer for reducing distractions.

Windowed Apps is for those that want to replicate traditional PC workflows. This is for the most demanding users that want to run many apps at the same time.

Stage Manager is kind of in the middle. It’s for those that want the flexibility of having windowed apps, but want to group different windows for different tasks and purposes.