iPadOS 16
Version of the iPadOS operating system
IPADOS-16-Logo.png
IPadOS 16 Homescreen.png
iPadOS 16 home screen
DeveloperApple Inc.
Written inC, C++, Objective-C, Swift, assembly language
OS familyUnix-like, based on Darwin (BSD), iOS
Source modelClosed with open-source components
General
availability		October 24, 2022; 6 months ago (2022-10-24)
Latest release16.4.1 (a)[1] (May 1, 2023; 16 days ago (2023-05-01)) [±]
Latest preview16.5 RC 2[2] (20F66)[3] (May 15, 2023; 2 days ago (2023-05-15)) [±]
Marketing targetTablet computers
Available in40 languages[4][5][6][7]
Update methodOTA, software update through iTunes, Apple Configurator, or Finder
Package managerApp Store
Platforms
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
Default
user interface		Cocoa Touch (multi-touch, GUI)
LicenseProprietary software with open-source components
Preceded byiPadOS 15
Official websitewww.apple.com/ipados
TaglineIncredibly capable. Unmistakably iPad.
Support status
Supported
Articles in the series
iOS 16

iPadOS 16 is the fourth and current major release of the iPadOS operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iPadOS 15, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2022, along with iOS 16, macOS Ventura, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16.[8][9] It received numerous new features, improving multitasking and many other aspects of the operating system, most notably on iPads with Apple's M1 SoC and later.

The public beta of iPadOS 16 was released on July 11, 2022. The public version of iPadOS 16 was released on October 24, 2022[10] as iPadOS 16.1.[11]

Features

See also: iOS 16 § Features

Freeform

Main article: Freeform (Apple)

Freeform is a whiteboard app that lets users collaborate together in real time. It was released with iPadOS 16.2.

Weather

For the first time, Apple's Weather app is available on iPad, it was originally only available on iPhone and iPod Touch.

Lock screen

The Lock Screen has a new font and displays the date above the time to match iOS 16, but lacks the new customization features.

Passkeys

iPads will now be able to sign into websites that implement WebAuthn using just the user’s passcode or biometrics.

Stage Manager

On iPads with Apple A12X Bionic, Apple A12Z Bionic, Apple M1 and Apple M2 processors, Stage Manager displays up to four apps at a time in adjustable windows. In addition, on iPads with Apple M1 and later, external displays are now driven using Stage Manager instead of screen mirroring, enabling display scaling on external displays.

Display scaling mode

On iPads with Apple M1 processors and later, and iPad Pro 11-inch with Apple A12X Bionic and A12Z Bionic processors,[12] Display scaling mode allows more view space in apps by increasing the pixel density of the display.

Reference Mode

On the iPad Pro 12.9-inch (5th generation) and (6th generation) with Liquid Retina XDR display, the iPad can be used in "Reference Mode" for color-graded work. This extends to Sidecar, as long as the Mac being connected to has Apple Silicon.

Spoken Content

As with iOS 16, some already supported languages have received additional voices (including "Novelty" voices for English), and voices and support have been added for the following languages:

Notes

More text indentation features are added, as well as the ability to create column tables.

Files

Allows the changing of file extensions and showing all file extensions.

Photos

App toolbar

Allows the customisation of toolbars to add tools, as well as editing the position of tools.

Criticism

The neutrality of this section is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please do not remove this message until conditions to do so are met. (October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

iPadOS 16's Stage Manager feature has been criticized by various sources for only being supported by certain iPad models with an M1 chip or M2 chip owing to strict performance requirements. In an interview with TechCrunch, Craig Federighi explained “It’s only the M1 iPads that combined the high DRAM capacity with very high capacity, high-performance NAND that allows our virtual memory swap to be super fast”.[13] It was later discovered that the feature is disabled for older devices by an internal setting.[14] Due to criticism, a single-screen version of Stage Manager was added on 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros in iPadOS 16.1 beta.[15] Apple later provided a statement to Engadget, stating that “…customers with iPad Pro 3rd and 4th generation have expressed strong interest in being able to experience Stage Manager on their iPads. In response, our teams have worked hard to find a way to deliver a single-screen version for these systems, with support for up to four live apps on the iPad screen at once”.[16]

External display support for Stage Manager on M1 iPads was delayed until further notice by Apple due to instability, and was brought back in the iPadOS 16.2 update.[17][18][19]

Stage Manager was also criticized for being "hard to use" and some reviewers and critics called the feature "fundamentally misguided".[20]

The lack of iOS 16's lock screen customization features was also criticized by reviewers such as David Pierce from The Verge.[21] iPadOS had a hidden lock screen customization app named PostBoard which included the iOS 16’s lock screen customization features in iPadOS 16 Beta 1.[22]

Supported devices

iPadOS 16 is supported on iPads with A9 or A9X chips or newer, dropping support for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4, both with A8 or A8X chips. This also marks the second time Apple has dropped support for older 64-bit iPads. The supported devices are as follows.

Releases

Further information: IPadOS version history § iPadOS 16

The first developer beta of iPadOS 16 was released on June 6, 2022. The first public release, iPadOS 16.1, was officially released on October 24, 2022.

Previous release Current release Current beta release Security response
iPadOS 16 releases[23]
Version Release date
16.1 October 24, 2022
16.1.1 November 9, 2022
16.2 December 13, 2022
16.3 January 23, 2023
16.3.1 February 13, 2023
16.4 March 27, 2023
16.4.1 April 7, 2023
16.4.1 (a) May 1, 2023
16.5 RC 2 May 15, 2023

See Apple's official release notes, and official security update contents.

See also

References

  1. ^ Clover, Juli (May 1, 2023). "Apple Releases Rapid Security Response Updates for iOS 16.4.1 and macOS 13.3.1". MacRumors. Retrieved May 2, 2023.
  2. ^ Clover, Juli (May 15, 2023). "Apple Seeds Second Release Candidate Versions of iOS 16.5 and iPadOS 16.5 to Developers". MacRumors. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  3. ^ "iPadOS 16.5 RC 2 (20F66) - Releases - Apple Developer". Apple Developer. Apple Inc. May 15, 2023. Retrieved May 15, 2023.
  4. ^ "Apple – iPad Pro – Specs". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  5. ^ "Apple – iPad mini 4 – Specs". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on October 24, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  6. ^ "Apple – iPad Air 2 – Technical Specifications". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on October 26, 2015. Retrieved October 24, 2015.
  7. ^ "Apple – iPhone XS – Technical Specifications". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on January 4, 2019. Retrieved January 4, 2019.
  8. ^ Burns, Matt (June 7, 2021). "iPadOS 15 announced at WWDC, features improved multitasking and surprising Swift Playgrounds features". TechCrunch. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  9. ^ Cipriani, Jason (June 7, 2021). "iOS 15 and iPadOS 15: How to download and install Apple's latest software". CNET. Archived from the original on June 7, 2021. Retrieved June 7, 2021.
  10. ^ "iPadOS 16". Apple. Archived from the original on October 18, 2022. Retrieved October 18, 2022.
  11. ^ "First public iPadOS 16 release will actually be iOS 16.1, in October". AppleInsider. Archived from the original on September 5, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  12. ^ "iPadOS 16 Beta Expands 'Zoomed Out' Display Option to Older 11-Inch iPad Pros". MacRumors. September 29, 2022. Archived from the original on October 5, 2022. Retrieved October 5, 2022.
  13. ^ "IPadOS 16's Stage Manager will only work on M1 iPads — here's why". June 14, 2022. Archived from the original on August 23, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  14. ^ "Apple could theoretically enable Stage Manager for older iPads in iOS 16". Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  15. ^ Clover, Juli (September 27, 2022). "New iPadOS 16.1 Beta Expands Stage Manager to Older iPad Pro Models, Delays External Display Support". MacRumors. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  16. ^ "The latest iPadOS 16 beta brings Stage Manager to older iPad Pro models". Engadget. Archived from the original on September 27, 2022. Retrieved September 27, 2022.
  17. ^ "Apple will bring Stage Manager to more iPads after all with iPadOS 16.1". GSMArena.com. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  18. ^ Loyola, Roman. "Apple expands Stage Manager support to older iPads, delays key feature". Macworld. Archived from the original on October 1, 2022. Retrieved October 1, 2022.
  19. ^ Espósito, Filipe (December 13, 2022). "iPadOS 16.2 brings these improvements for Stage Manager, plus AirTag tracking alerts". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on December 15, 2022. Retrieved December 15, 2022.
  20. ^ "Apple Criticized for 'Fundamentally Misguided' Approach to Stage Manager in iPadOS 16". Archived from the original on August 22, 2022. Retrieved August 22, 2022.
  21. ^ Pierce, David (July 11, 2022). "iPadOS 16 preview: jack of all trades, master of some". The Verge. Archived from the original on July 16, 2022. Retrieved September 5, 2022.
  22. ^ Espósito, Filipe (June 11, 2022). "iPadOS 16 beta 1 has secret debug menu that enables custom lock screen – sort of". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on November 13, 2022. Retrieved November 13, 2022.
  23. ^ "About iPadOS 16 Updates". Apple Support. Retrieved January 24, 2023.
Preceded byiPadOS 15 iPadOS 16 2022 Succeeded byCurrent
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