Window management on iPadOS is a mess. The old way (only one app, Split View or slide over) worked well, but is mostly gone since iOS 26. With iOS 27 the new window management became a bit better. But it's still pretty unusable without a mouse/pointing device. But even with a mouse it's not intuitive.

I use my iPad 99% without a keyboard and a mouse, and the window management only became worse over time. It got more features, sure, but it got very hard to use in a useful way.

So I'm back to the single app mode most of the time, which provides less functionality than 10 years ago.

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sroussey 3 hours ago | parent [-]

I never found a use for anything but single app mode on my iPad Pro.

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andix 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Split View and Slide Over was useful. It used to be really easy to add an additional window/app next to the currently open app. But now it requires fiddling around with resizing windows and arranging them in the right way. Many more steps. I can now open more than 2 apps simultaneously, but more than 2 apps just don't fit the screen of an iPad.

PS: they brought back the option to just drag an app from the dock to enable Split View, but it's still not as smooth as it used to be before 26.

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Ancapistani 31 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Agreed - and I actually went up the 13” iPad Pro this time around specifically because I wanted to see if window management was better on it. It’s not.

	▲	andix 21 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		I gave it a try on a 32" 4K monitor with mouse and keyboard for a few hours. To see if I just need to get used to it, and if I'm just too dumb to get it without practicing. I figured out all the quirks and it still sucked. It's also incredible how many window arrangements features they added (long press on the green button, next to the red X to close the window). Most of them are completely useless.

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bartvk 2 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Same here. I much liked split view and slide over. The current features made it such a hassle that I just switched back to single full screen apps.

	▲	andix 2 hours ago \| parent [-]
		With 27 both slide over and Split View are much easier to use, than on 26. So if you didn't try it yet, you should give it a try. Still worse than on 18 though.