Here’s a first look at Stage Manager on iPad
Stage Manager is one of the most important new features to arrive on iPadOS 16. Available on M1 iPads or later only, the feature provides a fresh way to multitask. Currently making its way through the beta, the feature is set to arrive this fall with the first public release of iPadOS 16. Here’s more about Stage Manager on iPad and how to use it.
Apple occasionally offers updates to iOS, iPadOS, watchOS, tvOS, and macOS as closed developer previews or public betas. While the betas contain new features, they also contain pre-release bugs that can prevent the normal use of your iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, or Mac, and are not intended for everyday use on a primary device. That’s why we strongly recommend staying away from developer previews unless you need them for software development, and using the public betas with caution. If you depend on your devices, wait for the final release.
Stage Manager on iPad:
Activating Stage Manager
Turning off Stage Manager
Resizing apps
Grouping apps
Ungrouping apps
More you can do
Activating Stage Manager on iPad
Stage Manager isn’t activated on iPad by default. Instead, you must turn it on through the Settings app or Control Center.
Settings app
Choose Home Screen & Dock.
Tap Stage Manager at the bottom of the Home Screen & Multitasking screen.
Toggle on Use Stage Manager on iPad.
Check or uncheck Recent Apps.
Check or uncheck Dock.
In the current iPadOS 16 betas, Stage Manager arranges your current apps into a strip on the left side of the display for quick access. When you hide Recent Apps or the Dock, your apps appear larger on the display.
Control Center
Pull your finger down from the top right of the screen to bring up Control Center.
Tap the Stage Manager icon to activate.
Once you activate Stage Manager, you’ll see icons representing your four most Recent Apps on the left side of the display.
Turning off Stage Manager
You can deactivate Stage Manager anytime in the Settings app or Control Center. However, the easiest way to do so is through Control Center. To do so:
Pull your finger down from the top right of the screen to bring up Control Center.
Tap the Stage Manager icon to deactivate Stage Manager.
Resizing apps using Stage Manager
One of the key features of Stage Manager is the ability to resize the apps on the screen. By doing so, you can bring order to a sometimes chaotic iPad screen.
To resize apps:
On the currently active app, press and hold the indicator shown at the bottom right of the app.
Use your fingers or mouse cursor to adjust the size of a window.
Grouping apps with Stage Manager
Most likely, you plan on using more than one app simultaneously on your iPad. This is possible thanks to grouping apps with Stage Manager. To do so:
Open the first app you wish to group.
Next, drag and drop the second app from the Recent Apps section OR the Dock into the main screen.
Your apps are now grouped and overlapped. And yes, you can group more than two apps!
Ungrouping apps with Stage Manager
If you no longer wish to group apps on your iPad, you can ungroup them in just a few steps:
Tap the app you wish to ungroup.
Choose the three horizontal dots at the top middle of the app.
Tap the last icon on the list (the one with a dash) to remove the app from the group.
More you can do with Stage Manager
In iPadOS 16, Stage Manager can also be used with external displays. As Apple explains:
External display support
Full external display support comes to iPad Pro with the M1 chip, with resolutions up to 6K. Now you can work with different apps on your iPad and external display.
Access apps on external display
Access your favorite apps and the ones that you used recently from the Dock, or use App Library to find the app you want faster.
Drag and drop between iPad and external display
Drag and drop files and windows from your iPad Pro to your external display, and vice versa.
Because iPadOS 16 remains in developer beta, we cannot add screenshots to the steps above. However, we will do so once the first public beta gets released. We’ll also expand this how-to as we get close to the official release of iPadOS 16 this fall.
About the Stage Manager M1 requirement
Soon after Apple announced Stage Manager for iPad, it became public that the feature would only work on M1 or later iPads. Currently, this includes the iPad Air (5th generation), 11-inch iPad Pro (2021), and 12.9-inch iPad Pro (2021). This limitation hasn’t gone over very well with many, especially those with the 2020 iPad Pro models. This means the feature WON’T work on all of our recommended iPads.
We’ll continue to cover Stage Manager and the controversy ahead of the iPadOS 16 release over the coming weeks. Stay tuned.
