As we approach WWDC24, I’ve been thinking about some of the software improvements I’d love to see, particularly with iPadOS. This will hardly be a comprehensive list, but I’ve decided to put together 5 of the top features I’d like to see announced for iPadOS this year. They’re not necessarily ranked in order of importance or which I’d like to see the most, they’re just listed in the order that I think of them.
1. A More Capable Status Bar
Currently, the iPadOS Status Bar at the top shows very basic information like the time, date, network connection status, battery percentage, and occasionally an extra like when the microphone is active, the screen is being recorded, or when an external accessory is plugged in. I can’t help but think this space at the top could be put to better use. I don’t know that a macOS-style Menu Bar would work well, as the buttons would likely be too small and too packed together to feel comfortable with touch interactions. But maybe the iPad’s Status Bar could incorporate the functionality of the Mac’s Menu Bar, but with its own design. Perhaps the iPad could adopt a new Status Bar design that would be more akin to a hybrid of the macOS Menu Bar and the iPhone’s Dynamic Island. Advanced app options like the File Edit View options (which already can be accessed by hold-pressing the CMD key) could be accessed from a collapsible menu, rather than always being expanded and taking up room as it is in the macOS Menu Bar. This would also allow the menu options to be bigger, and more touch friendly. Another useful improvement would be the ability to monitor background tasks with the Status Bar. Already, the Status Bar shows a pill-shaped button for things like screen recording, the camera when it’s active, or the microphone. What if a similar button could be displayed for downloads in the background? Or file transfers? This would be an improvement for multitasking, because then it wouldn’t be necessary to go to the app in question to check on the download or transfer. You could just look up at the Status Bar and see a little button indicating the download, transfer, or other background processes’ progress.
Another potential improvement would be the addition of quick to access applets, similar to the Menu Bar applets on macOS. Instead of displaying all of these in the Status Bar, perhaps they could be accessed from a drop-down tray. Or maybe they could be incorporated into the Control Center. These applets could make improvements for things like checking status on file uploads to cloud services, quickly accessing playlists from music streaming apps, and several other similar use cases.
I don’t know how likely any of those changes are, but I think they would be very useful additions to the Status Bar. As it currently stands, the Status Bar does the basics fine, but it seems like there’s a lot of empty space and missed potential with the current iteration of the Status Bar. I hope Apple will consider bringing an imaginative new take on the Status Bar, similar to what they already did with the Dynamic Island.
2. A Few More Stage Manager Improvements
I’m very happy with the current iteration of Stage Manager, and find it very useful. Ever since I switched it on with iPadOS 16, I’ve rarely ever switched it off. Unlike with Mac windowing, app windows move on a grid, and I actually prefer this because it keeps my workspace cleaner. Also, when I use my iPad as a tablet apart from the keyboard, I find it useful that Stage Manager automatically keeps an edge of app windows lower in the window stack exposed, that way I can more easily resurface app windows. That said, I think there are a few main areas where I’d like to see Stage Manager improve.
Clamshell mode would be a good start. This would be useful when you use Stage Manager with an external monitor, but don’t want to use the iPad’s display. A “clamshell” mode would allow us to put the iPad to sleep, and continue to work on the desktop monitor it’s connected to. Currently, the moment the iPad’s display goes to sleep, the external monitor goes black as well.
Using Control Center and Notification Center on external monitors would be helpful as well. Currently, if you try to click on the Control Center or Notification Center on the external monitor, they open on the iPad’s display instead of the external monitor. This can be disruptive to an otherwise smooth workflow, since it causes you to have to move between the external monitor and the iPad’s display.
3. Expansion of the AirPlay Receiver Setting
With iPadOS 17, Apple added an AirPlay Receiver setting similar to the one in macOS that allows iPhones and iPads to AirPlay to Macs. The only difference between the two settings is that the version introduced for the iPad and iPhone currently only support AirPlay from the Vision Pro. I think this is a major missed opportunity, because it makes a lot of sense to AirPlay from an iPhone to an iPad’s larger display. Hopefully iPadOS 18 will support AirPlay from the iPhone as well.
4. More of Apple’s Apps
Apple debuted a brand new Journal app last year, but so far, it is only available on iOS. There are also other notable apps that are absent from iPadOS, such as the Calculator app, which has actually never been shipped with the iPad since its original release! Luckily, rumors suggest that the Calculator app will finely come to the iPad this year. Beyond just the Journal and Calculator apps, it would also be nice if Apple incorporated some others, such as the FontBook app on iPadOS. FontBook is a font manager app built into macOS, and it is an excellent option for managing fonts installed on the Mac. Fonts are able to be organized into categories, and can be browsed in the FontBook app, which is helpful when looking for a particular font, or when just browsing for inspiration. On iPadOS, we still don’t have a built-in font management system as refined and intuitive as FontBook. There are, however, great free third party font apps that offer a similar range of functionality, such as the great iFont app.
5. Files App Improvements
The Files app has seen some big improvements the last few years, and is now very close to macOS’s Finder in terms of basic functionality. But there are still a few things that could see improvement.
One of the biggest improvements I’ve heard brought up the most would be the ability to set a default app for opening certain file types. For example, in Finder on macOS, I can set Pages as the default app for opening .pdf files. However, in Files, there is currently no way to set a default app for specific file types. However, you can choose which app you want to open a file in by using the Share Sheet to select the app you want to open it in. The downside of this is that you have to manually choose the app you want to use every time. A default setting for this would be useful.
Another useful feature would be the ability to reformat and repair external drives. iPadOS 17 added the ability to erase and rename external drives in the Files app. The erase feature is similar to the one in Disc Utility on the Mac, but the main difference is that Disc Utility asks whether you want to reformat the drive, or preserve the current format after it erases the drives contents. The erase feature in the Files app does not, it simply preserves the external drive’s file format. Reformatting and a repair feature would be a very useful feature for power users. Maybe this functionality should be incorporated into it’s own separate Disc Utility app on iPadOS, but it seems Apple is aiming to incorporate external drive management features into the Files app, which makes sense, since that’s where external drives are accessed.
Smart Folders. Smart Folders exist in Finder on macOS, but are still absent from the Files app. A similar feature for sorting notes is already available in the iPadOS Notes app, so it seems probable that Files should get Smart Folders functionality at some point. Maybe this can be the update that incorporates it.
Another often requested feature in the Files app is an “Eject” button for external drives in the Files app. This would allow users to safely remove external drives from the iPad. With modern SSDs and thumb drives, it’s generally not an issue to unplug the drive without ejecting them from what I’ve heard researching the topic (unless you’re in the middle of a file transfer when you do it), but since macOS reminds people they didn’t properly eject a drive every time someone unplugs it without ejecting it, the eject button’s absence creates confusion for many when working with external drives in the Files app on iPadOS.
Another feature that would be useful in the Files app, would be the ability to access the native storage of other Apple devices. In Finder on macOS, a user can plug in their iPhone or other Apple device, and the device shows up as a location in the Finder app, and from there, the user can click on it to open it, and access certain files stored natively on the connected device. The Files app on iPadOS currently doesn’t do this. There is a way to use the Photos app to access photos and videos stored on the other device’s native storage, but this only works for photos and videos sourced from the Photos app on the other device, and it doesn’t work for other file types. Access to another device’s storage from the Files app would be a very useful feature for power users who want to transfer other file types like audio files recorded with their iPhone over a wired connection to their iPad or vice versa. AirDrop is currently the best alternative option, and it does work quite well, but for large file transfers, a direct wired connection would likely be faster.
Conclusion
I don’t expect that all of these features will necessarily be incorporated into iPadOS 18, but I think we may see a few of them. Rumors are abuzz about iPadOS 18, and it sounds like it will be a big update. AI will likely be the big focus, but it seems that there will likely also be many other feature improvements as well. Perhaps a few of iPadOS 18’s new features will be ones here in this list.