With WWDC 2026 right around the corner, it’s that time of year where we get to speculate about the changes we hope are coming to our favorite tablet operating system.

Unlike last year, I’m focusing my wishes entirely on iPadOS this time around.

So, in no particular order, and with no expectation these things will actually happen, here’s what I would love to see in iPadOS 27.

Remove the App Limit in CMD-Tab App Switcher

If you’re using a hardware keyboard on iPad, and you use the familiar CMD+Tab keyboard shortcut to switch apps, you get the familiar macOS like App Switcher.

For reasons I’ve never been able to understand, on iPadOS, this UI is limited to 10 apps, including icon for the Home Screen. With the multitasking in iPadOS 26, it’s more likely you’ll have more than 10 apps that you want to switch between. On macOS, this list just gets smaller as you add more apps. iPadOS should implement a similar behavior to keep app switching fluid when using a hardware keyboard.

Tabs in the Files App

One of the few Mac workflows I miss on iPadOS is the ability to open folders in tabs in the same Finder window. It’s a much faster way, for me a least, to get files quickly from one folder to another. There are other options like using the Move command or dragging files into a pinned folder in the side bar, but this feature would remove a huge friction point for me.

Per-Folder Sort Settings in the Files App

I usually prefer to keep my folder contents sorted by name, but every so often, it’s quicker for me to find a file by sorting by date. The problem is, sort options in the Files app are a global setting, when I only really want them to apply to a single folder at a time.

Improved Background Windowing/Memory Management

One of the biggest remaining complaints I see regarding iPadOS is the inconsistent way apps retain their state in the background. Safari is one of the biggest offenders here. You do something in Safari, switch to Mail, or maybe something graphics intensive like a game, switch back to Safari, and your tabs reload. Heck, just writing this post and switching between Pixelmator Pro and Safari caused my Safari tab to reload!

This has gotten a little better than it used to be. In more recent years, Safari does better at preserving tab state, so that it can reload a local cache of your last webpage without doing a refetch from the server. But still, when was the last time you saw this behavior on a Mac? The answer for me is “never”.

There are other apps that are guilty of this behavior as well. While there are things developers can do to handle state preservation, this is something the operating system needs to do a better job of. It shouldn’t be so easy to completely lose your place in Safari.

Option for Playing Multiple Audio Sources at Once

I’m sure I talked about this last year, and the year before that, but with Apple making improvements to our Audio options for creators, I have hope they have more up their sleeve for audio on iPadOS.

By default the system won’t play audio from two different sources at the same time, That’s smart, and 90% of the time, that is the desired behavior.

However, there are cases where it would be useful to have an option to let audio from multiple sources play at once. It’s less about playing music from two different streaming apps, or watching multiple shows at once, and more about my music not stopping because an ad auto-plays on a webpage.

Classic Multitasking Option

If there’s one thing I learned from iPadOS 26, is that despite years of the tech press saying everyone hates iPad multitasking, a lot of users preferred what I’ll refer to as “classic” multitasking. That is, the SlideOver and Split View based multitasking that did not include floating windows.

”But can’t you reproduce this with Windowed Apps or Stage Manager?” you might be asking? Yes, but there are some differences in how it’s implemented now that cause many to yearn for the old system. Some of them are minor, like the visible space between apps in Split View, while others are more of a hindrance, like only being able to have a single app in Slide Over instead of a stack of apps.

I feel like I’ve pretty well adjusted to the new multitasking, but it seems like a fair amount of iPad users would still like the option to use the older multitasking UI. To me, it’s as simple as adding an option in Full Screen Apps mode (even if that kind of goes against the intention of Full Screen Apps).

Support for “Clamshell” Mode

The iPad Pro and iPad Air have had support to working on an external display for years now, but you’ve had to leave the iPad’s display on the entire time. On my Mac, I prefer to use my laptop with the lid closed in “clamshell mode” so that I can focus on the one larger display, instead of dealing with displays of different sizes and resolutions.

This feels like another Settings toggle to me. Disable the iPad display, turning it on only for Face ID or Touch ID.

Multiple External Displays

A couple of years ago, Apple released an update for the M3 MacBook Pro that let it drive two displays in clamshell mode, instead of the single display it was limited to at launch. An iPad has never been able to drive more than one external display, even though at least the models with M-Series chips are more than capable of it. Ideally, iPads with M chips should have the same level of display support as the corresponding MacBook Air.

And while they’re at it, maybe they could finally add proper external display support for the iPad Mini and iPad A16?

Conclusion

My list isn’t particularly big or ambitious this year, but that, to me, is a reflection of how far iPadOS has come in recent years. I’m not looking for any big sweeping changes, just more continued refinements and many, many bug fixes.

What are you hoping for in iPadOS 27? Leave a comment or hit me up on Threads, Mastodon, BlueSky, or Reddit, if that’s your jam.