Apple has already confirmed its key note WWDC 2022 for this June. For this reason, it is time to start preparing to see the news that iOS 16 and iPadOS 16 have to offer. As the date approaches, it is normal for rumors and leaks to arrive about what we could find, and this is the case that we bring you today. According to a new report, iPad devices will get resizable windows for apps with iPadOS 16.
Steve Troughton-Smith was the first to realize this. Steve, who works as an app developer, has discovered in the WebKit code published on GitHub the first signs that iPadOS 16 would allow resizing windows on iPad. “WebKit has just added infrastructure for ‘multitasking’ in iOS which looks very much like a system to freely resize windows,” Troughton-Smith comments on his Twitter account. Twitter.
Additionally, Smith has detailed this new multitasking format as something similar to the ‘Tablet Mode’ of Windows 10. In this way, you can enter and exit it by activating the necessary functions. In fact, a few weeks ago we saw an Apple patent for its iPad, in which by connecting a special keyboard, iPadOS entered a kind of ‘Desktop Mode’ with windows.
It seems that “multitasking mode” is something you can change at runtime, so apps can go in and out of it. I envision something along the lines of Windows 10’s “tablet mode,” which can be switched at any time to reshape the UI to be touch or mouse and keyboard.
Steve Troughton-Smith from Twitter
iPadOS 16 could be the most revolutionary update
If true, iPadOS 16 could become the most revolutionary version of the operating system. After all, Apple has been trying to sell us the iPad as a computer for several years, but without the features of one. A classic windowed multitasking system would be a great first step in the right direction.
In fact, in the patent registered by Apple on a supposed keyboard for iPad, we see what a windowed version of iPadOS 16 would look like. In the image, Apple represented the system with a top bar, much like the one in macOS. In addition, we have the classic status indicators, such as battery level, Wi-Fi, among others.
If they really go in this direction with the iPad, this would enable entirely new form factors for iPadOS. Larger iPads, iPadOS laptops and desktops, external monitors, etc. You can see how Catalyst-optimized apps light up in iPad’s new multitasking mode: a full “desktop” experience.
Steve Troughton-Smith from Twitter
In one of the replies, one of Steve’s followers asks if this has anything to do with the current split screen system on iPad. To this, the developer replied that it “doesn’t seem to be”; hence everything seems to indicate that iPadOS 16 will arrive with windows like those of macOS or Windows.
Of course, do not forget that this information is not official. Apple has not confirmed anything, and until we see the presentation of iPadOS 16 during WWDC 2022, we will not know how true it will be. Of course, if it is, we could be facing the most innovative version of the system in a long time.