Apple’s Latest IPadOS Update Brings Back an Important Multitasking Feature.
iPadOS 26 is a huge boon for those who’ve been pining for Apple to finally release a touchscreen MacBook . The update significantly overhauls multitasking, adding macOS-style windows, a menu bar, and macOS-style file management. The iPad even has a Preview app, oh my! Although, to be fair, it’s worth noting that the iPhone has one too .
For years, Apple has kept pace with the times with its tablets, introducing features and capabilities that make using a tablet more like using a computer, but it’s never set a clear goal. In that sense, iPadOS 26 probably won’t replace your MacBook, but it’s pretty close. If your main concerns are with things like window and file management, this update will likely be right for you. But even though the new era of iPad seems more traditional, Apple is taking a slight step back, but in a good way: the latest iPadOS update brings back a fan-favorite multitasking feature, Slide Over.
Slide Over simplifies window management
Before iPadOS 26, Slide Over had been a cornerstone of multitasking on Apple tablets for years. While you could open multiple apps simultaneously in windows of varying sizes, Slide Over allowed you to designate an app window that more closely resembled the iOS shape—specifically, something long and vertical. As the name suggests, this window could slide out from below the screen when needed and easily slide back in when not. It was perfect for keeping your social media feed or messaging app handy while working on something else: imagine having two windows open on your iPhone: one for Safari and one for Google Docs, but whenever you needed to send a message, you could pull the message window out from the right side of the screen and swipe it back in when it was time to get back to work.
Of course, the Mac doesn’t have a similar feature, as it uses standard window management. Perhaps Apple decided that if iPadOS 26 also introduced more standard window management, Slide Over would no longer be necessary. Therefore, the company removed the feature as part of a major iPad update this fall. It’s unclear whether Apple received negative feedback about this omission or whether the company itself decided it wasn’t necessary, but regardless of the reason, Slide Over returned in iPadOS 26.1 .
The Slide Over feature is slightly different in iPadOS 26.1
However, this feature doesn’t work exactly as it did before. To use it, you need to use your iPad in Stage Manager mode or windowed mode, which you can select in Control Center or under Settings > Multitasking & Gestures .
From here, open the app you want to use Slide Over for. Long-press the window controls in the upper-left corner of the app window, then select “Enter Slide Over.” The app will collapse into an iOS-like window on the right side of the screen. You can close it by swiping. You can also resize the window to any shape or size while still using Slide Over. In the image above, you can see that I’ve reduced the Apple Music window to a square, but you can make it any size you want, although this may defeat the purpose of customizing Slide Over.
How to update to iPadOS 26.1 (and later)
If you haven’t already, you can install the 26.1 update right now by going to Settings > General > Software Update . In addition to Slide Over, you’ll find a number of other useful features and changes, such as the ability to control the appearance of Liquid Glass on your iPad. If you’re a beta tester, you won’t need iPadOS 26.1, as Apple is currently testing iPadOS 26.2 . The public beta is now available and, for the first time, allows you to add alarms to reminders.