iPad User Magazine - UK (2019-10)

If youdon’twanttousemultitaskingandwanttoturnoff

itsgesturesupport,youcandothatin Settings> General>

HomeScreen& Dock.

Multitasking in iPadOS

Do morethings atoncewith SplitViewandSlideOver

ITWILLTAKE

10 minutes

YOUWILLLEARN

Howtousethe new

multitaskingfeatures

onyouriPad

YOU’LLNEED

iPadOS 13 or later

The first iPads didn’t multitask:

you could do one thing at a time

and nothing else. A very basic

kind of multitasking was

introducedin iOS 4 for iPhones, but iPads

didn’t get it until iOS 4.2 in 2010. Even then,

it wasn’t really multitasking: it was fast app

switching and the ability for a very small

selection of apps such to use a handful of

features – location services, audio playback

• in the background.

Today, though, iPads really do multitask.

You can run apps in Split View, where two

different apps or two copies of the same app

run side by side. Or you can run in Slide Over,

where one app hovers over the other(s).

New and improved

Some of these features were in iOS 12, but

they’ve been improved for iPadOS 13: its

version of Slide Over supports up to five apps

and Split View runs up to three apps or app

windows. There’s also a new App Exposé

option that will show you every open instance

of a specific app, including any in Slide Over

and Split View views. To see it, press and hold

on the app’s icon in the iPad dock and then tap

on Show All Windows.

It’s all very useful stuff, but we’ll be honest:

it isn’t always obvious what’s necessary to do

what you want to do, and sometimes it takes

more than one swipe or drag to get Slide Over

or Split View to function. But it’s worth

persevering with, because iPad multitasking

is a real time saver. You’ll get used to the right

movements quickly!

Carrie Marshall

Geniustip!

You can drag apps into

Side View or Slide Over

from Spotlight if you

have a keyboard: in an

app, use Cmd + Space to

open Spotlight, then

search for an app.

iPadOS Multitasking in iPadOS

iPad

OS