- iPadOS’s Stage Manager feature is coming to more iPads
- That could improve multitasking capabilities for iPad users
- But iPadOS 26 brings even better features to iPad than Stage Manager
If you’re a fan of multitasking on any of the best iPads, you were probably heartened to see all the new features Apple brought to iPadOS 26 at its Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC). But while those additions are sure to make a splash for productivity power users, the company is also extending the existing Stage Manager feature to even more iPads.
In case you missed it, Stage Manager lets you group apps into sets and then switch between those sets as needed. It’s designed to help you focus on one task and all the windows you need to complete it, then change to a different task and group of apps after. It’s available on both iPadOS and macOS.
With iPadOS 26, Stage Manager will be available on more iPads than before. Previously, it only worked on the 13-inch iPad Pro with M4 chip, the 12.9-inch iPad Pro (third generation or later), the 11-inch iPad Pro (first generation or later), and the iPad Air (fifth generation or later).
As noted on Reddit, in addition to those tablets, Stage Manager now also works with the third-generation iPad Air or later (not just the fifth-generation model), the iPad mini (fifth generation or later), and the entry-level iPad (eighth-generation or later). In essence, Stage Manager works with any iPad that can run iPadOS 26.
Better than Stage Manager
Stage Manager has proven to be a somewhat divisive feature since it was released – not helped by a buggy launch – and it’s struggled to establish itself as a must-have element of iPadOS. Although I was intrigued by it at first, I quickly found Stage Manager to be a little half-baked, and it never became a regular part of my setup on either my iPad or my Mac.
What looks to be far more interesting is the range of productivity tools Apple has added to iPadOS 26. That includes a Mac-like menu bar, full overlapping app support, window resizing, and even the “traffic light” buttons used to close, minimize or maximize app windows. Window tiling in particular is an excellent addition to the iPad, as you get a lot more window position options than just using an older feature like Split View.
Being able to use an iPad like a Mac offers much more appeal to me than Stage Manager. That’s partly because the Mac-like interface is just much more familiar to anyone who has used a computer before – there’s no new system to learn, as there is with Stage Manager. And gaining these new tools now makes it much more comfortable to work on the go with my iPad, as I no longer need to sacrifice capability in the name of portability.
Still, with Stage Manager coming to more iPads than before, it could still find an audience among Apple fans who have never had access to it. In any case, combined with iPadOS 26’s new multitasking features, it’s clear that Apple is taking productivity and user interface management a little more seriously.
