I finally got to spend some time with Stage Manager on iPad…
Putting Apple’s controversial new iPadOS window management system to the test.
Stage Manager was one of the major new features announced for iPadOS 16 this summer at WWDC. Throughout the iPadOS 16 beta cycle this it was extremely controversial, with many people outright panning it and declaring that there was no way Apple could ship it. I haven’t weighed in on this topic too much since my previous generation iPad Air can’t run Stage Manager at all with its A14 Bionic processor. In order to use Stage Manager you have to have an M1, M2, or A12Z Bionic chip. But I finally got to spend some time with both Stage Manager and iPadOS’s new external display capabilities and I was very impressed.
Firstly, I get why not everyone likes Stage Manager. In fact, I’m pretty sure that a lot of the braying about Stage Manager online is coming from people who have been haranguing Apple to port macOS to the iPad for years. I’m glad Apple is taking a different approach, and finding ways to make iPadOS more versatile in ways that stay true to what the iPad is: a touch-first tablet that supports external keyboards and has grown to also accept mouse and Pencil input. If Apple erased all that work and just ported over macOS, I truly think something special would be lost.
But even putting that cadre of iPad critics aside for now, Stage Manager definitely has room for improvement. It’s not entirely intuitive, particularly when it comes to adding and subtracting apps from a particular stage. Arranging windows is also a bit awkward. On macOS you can move windows with extreme precision to any position on the screen. With Stage Manager on iPadOS you can do this to a degree, but there are times where app windows want to snap into predefined positions. I also wish the OS was more forgiving when it comes to where you can click to drag a window around. There are no title bars on iPadOS, but you still have to click at the very top of the window to guarantee that the entire window will move as you drag. Window resizing is likewise not as seamless as on macOS. Instead as your resize a window it cycles through various resize states. It’s not bad, but I’d love to see it get more fluid.
Those very real quibbles aside though, I’m glad they shipped Stage Manager. It shows the rough edges of a first generation major software product, but it also shows a lot of promise. I think I could happily use an iPad connected to a large external display and get real work done. With each generation of iPadOS, the iPad gets more and more capable as a true laptop replacement, and all in a way that is very native to the iPad’s identity. I’m glad Apple is doing it this way, and I look forward to how it continues to improve.