Apple has previewed iPadOS 26, its most significant update to date, introducing a redesigned interface and powerful new capabilities aimed at enhancing iPad’s versatility and user experience.
The update features a sleek new design crafted from Liquid Glass, which adds dynamic translucency and responsiveness to elements such as the Lock Screen, Control Center, and Home Screen. Users will also notice updated app icons, new light and dark tints, and refined navigation across apps like Mail and Safari.
Central to iPadOS 26 is a new windowing system that offers users precise control over app windows. It supports fluid resizing, window tiling with a simple gesture, and preserves window size and placement for reopened apps. The Exposé feature displays all open windows for quick switching, while a customizable menu bar enhances command access. The system integrates smoothly with Stage Manager and external displays for expanded multitasking.
Enhanced Apple Intelligence delivers features such as Live Translation across Phone, FaceTime, and Messages, enabling seamless communication across languages with translated captions and spoken translations during calls. Creative tools include Genmoji and Image Playground, which allow users to customize emojis, create images using AI, and apply new artistic styles via ChatGPT integration. Shortcuts are more powerful, offering intelligent actions like text summarization and dynamic image generation.
The Files app gains a resizable list view, folder customization with colors and icons, and the ability to drag folders directly into the Dock. Users can now set default apps for specific file types. A dedicated Preview app has been introduced for PDF and image markup using Apple Pencil and touch, including AutoFill for forms.
Background Tasks enable long-running processes with live activity updates, and new audio features offer app-specific microphone selection and improved recording quality, including Voice Isolation and studio-grade audio support for compatible AirPods. Local capture allows high-quality audio and video recordings during video calls with echo cancellation.
New apps such as Journal provide multimedia journaling capabilities with handwriting, drawings, and location-based organization. The Apple Games app offers a central hub for gaming with a Game Overlay for event updates and social features. Messages introduces conversation backgrounds, polls, enhanced group chat tools, and Apple Cash support. The Phone app expands to iPad with features like Hold Assist and Call Screening.
Additional updates include a reed pen tool for calligraphy-style input, 3D graphing in Calculator, markdown support in Notes, and accessibility improvements like Accessibility Reader and a revamped Braille Access interface.
iPadOS 26 is available for developer testing now and will be released as a free update this fall for supported iPad models. Some features require compatible hardware and supported languages, with expanded language support planned.
For more details, visit apple.com/os/ipados and apple.com/apple-intelligence.