While it's Liquid Glass, Apple's new transparent design language, that's hogging the headlines, iPad fans have been given another reason to get excited. A new 'windowing architecture' might not sound the most titillating development on earth, but if it finally nails multitasking on iPad, it could be a game-changing. And early responses to the beta release of iPadOS 26 suggest that might just be the case.
As per the Apple Newsroom, iPadOS 26 includes a new windowing system that "lets users fluidly resize app windows, place them exactly where they want, and open even more windows at once." It's something iPad users have been crying out for since the original tablet launched over a decade ago – and it just made the idea of the iPad as a Mac replacement a little less fanciful.
Window controls let users to close, minimise, resize, or tile their windows. And the system leans into the touch controls of the iPad, letting users simply flick to arrange windows. And then there's Exposé which reveals every currently open window – something, again, straight out of MacOS.
While I've tried using an iPad as my daily work device before, it's never quite managed to replace my Mac entirely, and that's mostly down to multitasking. Stage Manager never quite hit the spot, and whenever I needed to use multiple windows, such as when editing multiple photos for articles in Photoshop, I ended up switching to my Mac. And after a few months of this pattern, the iPad ended up consigned to my Drawer of Barely Used Tech (DOBUT).
But judging by the response online, I'm not the only one who's finally excited about the possibilities of iPadOS 26. "My god, they finally made a MacOS-lite UI. I might actually just unload my Macbook Pro and commit to an OLED iPad Pro if this works as well as it should," one Redditor comments, while another adds, "Oh my god I think they actually mean it this time." Another puts it, "they finally had the balls to go through with this instead of listening to the people that liked a more basic experience.
So while it might not be as splashy (sorry, glassy) as the new design language for iOS, in terms of quality of life for users, iPadOS's new windowing system could be the most significant change announced at WWDC this week. As soon as it ships, I'll be digging out my iPad and trying it out as my main device again. Maybe this time it'll stick.
