How to achieve a split-screen-like operation on iPad OS26?

Hi. I'll try to help, but keep in mind I was never on the beta, I've only been playing with this a little bit over the last couple of days, and I've been completely unable to find any documentation for VO on this. I'm sort of hoping someone who's been doing this longer can give some advice to make this easier, but here we go.

First, make sure you go into the multitasking section in setings and turn windowing mode on, otherwise none of this will work. You might also at least temporarily want to turn on the mode where all windows disappear when you go home, since with this new system it's quite possible to do the thing you can do on the Mac and end up with a tonne of windows stacked on top of each other, ☺️

I'll use Mail and Safari as examples here, but this can be any two apps. If you've got an external keyboard, first, open mail. Then, open Safari using the dock or spotlight or something. Them, hit I think, globe-shift-control-right or left arrow. At that point, the last two apps you opened are on half the screen each.

If you've can't remember the keystrokes, or if you want to arrange windows in a bunch of other ways, hit globe-m and go to the windows section of the menu bar. Under move and resize there's a bunch of stuff.

If you're *not* using a keyboard, it's a little bit more fiddly. Basically, every app starts in full screen mode. Open mail. Go to the very bottom right corner of the screen and you'll find something that says "resize mail". Double tap and hold on it and drag it a tiny bit. It doesn't really matter where, just drag up a tiny bit or something. After that two things will appear, a button at the top centre of the window that says "move mail" and a button on the far left that's the multi-tasking menu.

Now open Safari , probably from your dock if you've set windows to vanish when you go home, ☺️Tap on multi-tasking, then triple tap or double-tap and hold on the zoom option. At that point you'll see all those other windowing options you got to from the menu bar using the keyboard instructions.

You can also bring up that menu bar I think without the keyboard by pulling the top of the window down a bit, but I'm still working on figuring that out.

If things get too confusing, find that multi-tasking button and hit zoom, and the window will go full screen.

I also think you can add windowing as a control in the control panel so you can turn it on and off when you don't want to bother with it.

It sounds more complicated than it is, particularly with a keyboard, but as I said I'm just working all this out myself.

Do you think you can explain how to use stage manager on the iPad on iPad OS 26 too? I think that sounds like a wonderful feature as well. I have bee playing around with it but haven’t yet figured out how it works.

I am using a bluetooth keyboard case on my iPad.

Honestly, I haven't even gone there yet, If nobody does it first I certainly will once I play with it.

What I do know is that it's a layer on top of the windowing system I just tried to explain, so I'm waiting to get a bit more comfortable with that first, ☺️.i

Honestly, I'd settle for a gesture that brought up the menu bar, the way the keyboard command does, I don't think such a thing exists yet, but it certainly could if Apple added it to the system commands - I've given myself a Spotlight gesture I can use from anywhere that way.

Honestly though, I'm the weirdo that actually likes using an ipad without a keyboard. No, you can't treat it like a phone and swipe everywhere, but once you know where things are on the screen it can be really fast and efficient, to the point I really hate navigating with a keyboard. Oh well, we're all different.

I'll keep playing with the windows. The one thing I didn't mention was that, the size of a window is sticky, even once you go away from it, so that mail window you set to half the screen stays that way until you zoom it or otherwise move/resize it or close it. Or, I guess open a new window for the app at which point you'd have one fullscreen window and one halfsized one.

As I said, it's complicated, since it's a real mac-like windowing system.

Using an iPad without keyboard is also great. The thing is that I have it on because I write a lot and need it because while it’s technically possible to write a book using braille screen input (I have done that) I think that would be a bit slow.

Oh, I agree. I've got a keyboard too, and it's usually on for serious work, but I almost never use vo commands on it, mostly just typing and app keyboard shortcuts. I often feel like in that mode I'm using the ipad like a giant trackpad.

I'm definitely using it for window management, that's for sure. On the other hand I have to spend some time dragging windows around with my fingers and trying to find that multi-tasking menu just so I know how.

Hi Yvonnezed,
Thank you kindly for a brilliant description of the issue at hand!
I cannot use the keyboard commands for some reason, Globe+shift+right/left arrows, you said, right?
Have you by any chance turned on full keyboard access? Mine is turned off as voiceover focus jump issue aggressively appears with full keyboard access.
Not that it disappears with full keyboard access off, but at least the frequency of focus jumping in edit fields is less.
I wrote to apple about it, in fact, have been writing to them since IOS 18, but no joy yet!
Any suggestions?

You definitely don't need full keyboard access, they're system commands available to anyone using a keyboard.

I think it's control globe shift right or left, but the easiest way to check is to open the menu bar with globe m. Go across to the window menu and you'll find all the ways you can arrange windows with the shortcuts.

Obviously, you can run them that way too. Hope this helps.

It It is usable now and I am starting to get the hang of both the windowed apps and the stage manager thing. The stage manager and windowed apps are quite different. There are good keyboard commands and in windowed apps there is a window switcher with the eactive windows. Stage managerc can be used but takes time to learn. The only problem I have is that the app strip on the left dissappears but usually that means that it's full. So I am playing around with both. Also a good set of commands. cmd+w closes a window and cmd+m minimizes it.

You can have four apps open. The recently opened apps are on a strip to the left, of course if you turn on stage manager in the settings. The recent apps will be in that strip and when you focus on that you can swipe or use up arrow to choose add to center stage. The closing of windows is a bit harder because you have to first move system focus on it, for example swipe four fingers left or right on the screen and then bring up the menue. On a keyboard that is cmd+tab. Then bring up the menue by either swiping up and down from the top of the screen, a little like how to open the dock but on the upper half. Then choose Window and then close. If you have a keyboard you don’t even have to be in the menu. Just press cmd+m or cmd++w, m for minimize and w to close the window.
I hope this helps.

The windowed apps function is completely diffrerent. To add a window just choose something from the dock or use spotlight. For some reason I haven’t yet gigured out if there is a way to add things from home screen. What I do is to go to the app and then back to the group of windows and then open the app from the dock but I am not sure if that’s how to do it correctly. You can use the menu of the seprate windows to remove an app and to get there with a keyboard you can use the shortcut to go to the next visible app. I don’t remember the command because I have reasigned it but it is in the commands section on voiceover area. Cycle through that unti you find the window switcher and activate the name of the window. Then use Cmd+w or cmd+m depending on if you want or completely close or just minimize.

This can be done, but I feel it's a little fiddly. To move system focus there is easier though. I recomend a keyboard for the multi tasking. My girlfriend uses the ipad without a keyboard so I may actually ask Evancé if she can give more information. I'm not good at using the iPad without it then she is so I guess I'm a keyboard girl when it comes to that. I only know how to multitask with a keyboard so will ask Evancé.

I think basically the idea is, if you need multiple groups of windows, use stage manager. If you want all your windows to be part of one workspace, use the windowed mode without stage manager.

The thing to remember about windows is that they're sticky. If you make say a mail window take up half the screen, and make a safari window take up the other half, those windows stay that size until you change them or completely close them.

In other words, it's entirely possible to open mail and realise it's only on half the screen even if it's the only open window and have to zoom it to make it fullscreen again.

You absolutely can open apps from the home screen if you're in windowed mode and make them part of the group, but if it opens as a fullscreen window you have to resize it with that icon in the lower right corner to turn it from a fullscreen into a window. Again, it's a bit fiddly but once you're a bit used to it descriptions designed for sighted people start making a lot more sense, ☺️.

The only final thing I'll say is that, if you're using windows without a keyboard, you really have to be good at explore by touch. If you need to practice that, my advice is to find some games that work well with it, accessible solitare for example is a good one that just got released recently and try to play it without flicking right and left, just exploring the screen and learning how to use an iPad spacially. After that, things like windowing and such get a lot easier.