If you haven’t already, please read my iOS 17 wishlist here. It will provide some important background on how these wishlists were made. 

iPadOS is a weird operating system for Apple. It’s perfectly fitting as the iPad is weirdest product Apple produces. The iPad started life as basically a big iPhone- they shared the same design and OS. As the years went on, especially after the death of Steve Jobs, they did begin to give the iPad some exclusive features that iPhone didn’t get despite running the same OS. Once 2019 rolled around, Apple decided to take the iPad into an all new direction by giving the iPad it’s own OS- iPadOS. iPadOS 13 was built on top of the foundations of iOS 13, but added many features that made sense on an iPad that couldn’t be as easily utilized on the smaller screen of the iPhone, like multiple windows, Slide Over, gestures for copy/paste/cut/undo/redo,  Picture in Picture, an emphasis on dragging and dropping everything, and a redesigned exclusive Home Screen. It was a fantastic release. But as early as iPadOS 14, Apple started going back on a lot of the improvements they made to the iPad and began bringing a lot of iPadOS features to the iPhone. Eliminating the point of giving the iPad its own OS in the first place. Since iPadOS 14, Apple has gone back on gestures, dragging and dropping, Picture in Picture and the tighter Home Screen grid. In exchange for these features going away  or being paired down, users generally got nothing in return. This year, I want to see Apple return to the direction and design principles of iPadOS 13 and make the iPad a great in-between product of the iPhone and Mac. I want to be clear at the outset. I am not in favor of Apple allowing dual-booting of macOS on iPad, nor Apple simply porting over their Mac apps to iPad and requiring users to have the Magic Keyboard accessory to make it all work. Apple should treat the iPad as a touch first product that has a lot in common with their two other products and carefully design features that appeal and appease users of both products. 

1. Multiuser Support- This is something that macOS has had forever and is something that the iPad desperately needs. Data shows that iPads rarely leave the home and are frequently used by multiple people in that household. It’d be great to have something akin to the macOS profiles that so that apps and an Apple ID can be tied to just one user. On devices with Touch ID, a simple touch on the Home Button can fast user swap. Or on devices with Face ID, you can authenticate when unlocking for the first time from the Lock Screen or anytime by using Control Center. Similar to tvOS, a little dropdown can come from the top right corner indicating who has been signed in. Each user can have their own Lock Screen, Home Screen, Focus Modes, and app and account access. 

2. Support for Apple News+ Audio Stories- If you’re a reader of this blog, you’ll know one of the first posts I made was about how Apple News is a frustrating feature to use. In iPadOS 17, Apple should finally allow users to listen to Audio Stories on iPad. On iPad, Apple could even go a step further by using the same ML technology from Apple Music Sing, users can easily follow along with the text of an article being narrated. 

3. Rename “News+” tab in News to “Magazines”- This is another minor thing concerning the News app, but I think Apple should rename the News+ tab to Magazines in order to eliminate confusion on what the News+ category gives you access to. Tapping it while not subscribed can show you the benefits of subscribing, but once subscribed, it’d be nice if it just let you see all the magazines you’ve followed. 

4. Optimize Battery Charging- Every other Apple product has the optimize battery charging feature. iPhone, Mac, Watch, even AirPods. Apple should add this to iPad as well to help users preserve their battery integrity and give users information on when they will need to replace the battery. 

5. All new Home Screen- This is an exciting feature. I hope that Apple returns to the widget and app icon sizing. And Athen instead of having pages like on iPhone, give the iPad a rectangle that is the height of the iPad, so when it’s tuned horizontal, you can see a wider view of your Home Screen. This eliminates the problem of the iPad having a tiny app grid and gives the iPad additional flexibility over devices like the Mac by giving it a larger canvas to work with to freely place apps and widgets and folders on this continue scrolling ribbon that would look the same no matter what orientation the iPad is held.

6. Updated Status Bar- Taking inspiration from macOS and the Dynamic Island on iPhone 14 Pro, I think Apple should make the Status Bar slightly taller to allow more detailed icons like Now Playing or Timers to be displayed without having to go to Notification or Control Center.

7. Notifications drop in from top left of screen- I’ve commented before how great notifications are on iOS by dropping down from the top of the screen, then to see them again, you just pull down from the top of the screen and there they live. This is the same behavior on iPad, but an iPad has more screen than iPhone and none of the ears or extra Status Bar space iPhones have, so to make it more clear where you need pull down from in order to see your notifications, I think it’d be great if Notifications dropped in from the top left of the screen. The previously mentioned taller Status Bar and suite of icons it displays would more clearly show to pull down from to access Control Center.

8. Notifications can be dragged into windows- This is a feature that was previously in iPadOS but somewhere along the line got removed for some odd reason. It used to be super convenient to get an iMessage notification and just drag in out into a Slide Over window and have the full conversation right there. Now you can only tap it to open the app or pull down to reply and have a short glance at the last few messages sent. I have no idea why Apple ever removed this feature, but it made using the iPad harder.