WWDC 2025: Redefine what’s possible on iPad with iPadOS 26

The beautiful new design brings more expressive and delightful experiences to iPad users, while maintaining the familiarity of iPadOS. It’s crafted with Liquid Glass — a translucent new material that reflects and refracts its surroundings, while reacting to user input and dynamically transforming to bring greater focus to the content they care about most. It enables a new level of vitality across experiences like the Lock Screen and Control Centre, and gives users new ways to personalise their Home Screen with updated app icons that come to life in light or dark appearances, colourful new light and dark tints, as well as an elegant new clear look. And updated controls and navigation extend to apps including Mail, Safari, Apple TV, Apple Music, and more.

iPadOS 26 introduces powerful new features that help users work with, control, organise, and switch between app windows — all while maintaining the immediacy and simplicity that iPad users expect. The new windowing system lets users fluidly resize app windows, place them exactly where they want, and open even more windows at once.

Familiar window controls allow users to seamlessly close, minimise, resize, or tile their windows. Window tiling is designed for the unique capabilities of iPad, and enables users to arrange their windows with a simple flick. If a user previously resized an app, it opens back in the exact same size and position when they open it again. With Exposé, users can quickly see all their open windows spread out, helping them easily switch to the one they need. The new windowing system works great with Stage Manager for those who want to group their windows into distinct stages, and with an external display for those who want even more space to work across their apps.

With a new menu bar, users can access the commands available in an app with a simple swipe down from the top of the display, or by moving their cursor to the top. Users can quickly find a specific feature or related tips in an app by using search in the menu bar. Additionally, developers can now customise the menu bar in their own apps.

Apple Intelligence, the personal intelligence system that delivers helpful and relevant intelligence while taking an extraordinary step forward for privacy in AI, becomes even more capable and even more integrated across iPadOS 26. Live Translation in Phone, FaceTime, and Messages enables iPad users to communicate seamlessly across languages. In Messages, incoming texts — including group messages — are automatically translated into the user’s preferred language. On FaceTime, a user can follow along with translated live captions while still hearing the speaker’s voice. And when on a phone call, the translation is spoken aloud throughout the conversation.

iPadOS 26 brings users new ways to create Genmoji, giving them the ability to start with existing emoji and descriptions, modify personal attributes like hair length or accessories, and select expressions. Users will also have more control of personal attributes and expressions in Image Playground, and can tap into brand-new styles with ChatGPT, like an oil painting style for a friend’s Contact Poster. For moments when users have a specific idea in mind, they can tap Any Style and describe exactly what they want. And Image Playground can now send a user’s description or photo to ChatGPT and create a unique image.

Shortcuts features new intelligent actions that allow users to create shortcuts that are more powerful than ever, including summarising text with Writing Tools and creating images with Image Playground. Users can also tap directly into Apple Intelligence models to provide responses that feed into the rest of their shortcuts. For example, a student can build a shortcut that uses Apple Intelligence models to compare an audio transcription of a class lecture to the notes they took, and add any key points they may have missed.

iPadOS 26 introduces powerful new ways to manage, access, and edit files. An enhanced Files app with an updated List view allows users to see more of their document details in resizable columns and collapsible folders. To make folders easier to identify at a glance, Files also offers folder customisation options that include custom colours, icons, and emoji that sync across devices. For quicker access, users can now drag any folder from the Files app right into the Dock. Additionally, users can set a default app for opening specific files or file types.

Preview comes to iPad, giving users a dedicated app for creating a quick sketch, as well as viewing, editing, and marking up PDFs and images with Apple Pencil or by touch. Users can access all of their PDFs and images in the Files app right from Preview, create an empty page, use Apple Pencil to draw and write on it, and use AutoFill to quickly fill out PDF forms.

With iPadOS 26, Journal comes to iPad, making it easy for users to capture and write about the details of everyday moments or special events. Using Apple Pencil or touch, users can incorporate drawings and handwriting, along with photos, videos, audio recordings, places, their state of mind, and more. Users can keep multiple journals for various aspects of life, and now have access to a beautiful map view that organises entries by location.

The all-new Apple Games app brings users a new home for gaming, and iPadOS 26 introduces Game Overlay, which allows users to quickly see new events and updates, adjust settings, call or invite a friend mid-game, and more.

The Messages app brings conversation Backgrounds, which lets a user personalise their chats with stunning designs and create unique backgrounds that fit their conversation with Image Playground. Messages also brings Polls and a redesigned details view that helps users easily navigate what has been shared in a conversation, and supercharges group chats with typing indicators, as well as the ability to request and receive Apple Cash. Additionally, the Phone app comes to iPad, and includes updates like Hold Assist and Call Screening.