Last year, Apple announced the App Library and redesigned widgets for iOS 14. It was a little surprising that it didn’t get ported to iPadOS immediately. But better late than never. During the Apple WWDC 2021 event, the company announced that iPadOS 15 is getting just that.
With the larger screen space, iPadOS 15 will also allow for larger widgets on its homescreens. This is a major improvement from before, where it can only be placed in the Today View sidebar.
It’s much the same story for the App Library for iPadOS 15 as it was with iOS 14. You have the same automatic app grouping initially, which you are then free to rearrange. You can even rearrange the order of the group.
In addition to these two features, iPadOS 15 is also getting the Translate app. Much like what we saw last year, it works offline, which is an advantage over Google’s offering.
Beyond these familiar features, the new iPad operating system will also get more multitasking-friendly. This is because getting into split-view mode will be made simpler. Something new called the “shelf” feature, which gives you easy access to all open windows of an app, or even split-view app pairs.
And finally, there’s Quick Note. This essentially makes the Note app a system-wide feature, letting you take notes while using any other app.
iPadOS 15 is now available in developer beta. In July, the open beta will be available, and general availability sometime in fall. That’s between the end of September and the end of December.
