iPadOS 26 has been revealed with new windowing, audio tools, background tasks

WWDC 2025 is underway, and Apple has revealed iPadOS 26 with a full redesign to go with its new name, in addition to incredible pro-focused tools and multitasking.

Apple has just shared the existence of the long-rumored iPadOS upgrade. Though the name may not be what you’re expecting, as Apple has called it iPadOS 26 instead of iPadOS 19.

The new visionOS-inspired Liquid Glass design was first shared with the iOS 26 reveal, but of course, it’s been carried over to iPadOS 26. Everything from the newly designed Home Screen icons to the various transparent menu items and buttons has been included in iPadOS 26.

For iPadOS 26, the redesign is much more than just a visual change. Apple rethought the entire multitasking and windowing system with a Menu Bar, traffic light buttons, and overlapping windows.

Stage Manager is gone, and has been replaced with a full windowing system similar to macOS. Windows can be tiled and placed anywhere, resized, and overlap.

A macOS-inspired multitasking system for iPadOS 26. Image source: Apple

Apps like Phone, FaceTime, and Messages have significant updates and layout changes that prioritize easy communication. Spam filtering with call screening and list management helps keep the right people up top and ringing your phone.

Live Translation is also a new system-wide feature for chats, calls, and anywhere text appears. Even Apple Music gets a feature that will translate lyrics.

Apple has expanded Apple Intelligence tools like Image Playground to include new themes and prompting via ChatGPT. It means users can generate all new images using the AI models they chose, bringing a whole new use case to Image Playground.

The iPad operating system has remained a somewhat controversial one due to its artificial limitations placed around how apps can operate. Apple seems to have taken on every user complaint with iPadOS 26, providing multitasking changes, audio tools, and background tasks.

The already-packed keynote may not include every detail about iPadOS 26. Expect Apple to share specific feature lists and more in press releases following the keynote.

This news is breaking, and the WWDC 2025 keynote is still underway. Keep refreshing the page for more information on iPadOS 26 as it arrives.