All iPads Here is a concept of how floating windows could be on the iPad

[Marlon DLTH :)]

This is my first time doing a concept. I made it using PowerPoint haha. This is how I thing floating windows could be on iPadOS

 

[AutomaticApple]

This is my first time doing a concept. I make it using PowerPoint haha. This is how I thing floating windows could be on iPadOS View attachment 915193 View attachment 915194 View attachment 915195 View attachment 915197 View attachment 915199

Apple should hire you as a software engineer! ?

 

[Deliro]

Over 3 years ago I was using floating windows on my jail broken iPad. obviously it can be done but at what resource and performance hit that Apple would be ok with?

 

[hovscorpion12]

This would obviously be an iPad Pro only feature. The iPad Pro’s are capable of much greater multitasking.

 

[Deliro]

This would obviously be an iPad Pro only feature. The iPad Pro’s are capable of much greater multitasking.

There are also software development considerations. Apps would need to support this. If it’s done all OS side there would be some funky user experience issues. The SDK would need some major revamps. Not sure if that’s something Apple has the appetite for.

edit - with that said I’d love to see what the poster came up with become a reality.

 

[boston04and07]

Yes! I love it. Great job.

 

[hovscorpion12]

There are also software development considerations. Apps would need to support this. If it’s done all OS side there would be some funky user experience issues. The SDK would need some major revamps. Not sure if that’s something Apple has the appetite for.

edit - with that said I’d love to see what the poster came up with become a reality.

Apple will need to force developers Day 1. It’s been years and some developers are just now updating their apps to work with split-view/slid-over. MSFT took two years to implement split view. if is announced at WWDC, Apple must for all apps to work by iPadOS 14 launch.

 

[muzzy996]

Nice.

Another feature I would want would be double tapping any edge of a floating window will expand the window in that direction either to the edge of the display or to the next adjacent window. Then, once two windows share an edge, one should be able to grab that shared edge to scale both windows simultaneously using a long press, or just the active window's edge with a quicker grab.

 

[Ludatyk]

This is my first time doing a concept.

Although, it's a great concept. I for one, welcome it. Yet, there's the average user who still prefers to use their iPad traditionally one-app at a time (ie: John Gruber). And get hand fatigue using SplitView/SlideOver, which plenty of users have mentioned this.

I'm more of a fan with contextual menu for the new vision of iPad. Apple has provided us a glimpse of it with iOS/iPadOS... they just need to expand on it more.

 

[marty1980]

Apple will need to force developers Day 1. It’s been years and some developers are just now updating their apps to work with split-view/slid-over. MSFT took two years to implement split view. if is announced at WWDC, Apple must for all apps to work by iPadOS 14 launch.

Apple can’t force app makers into immediate changes like that. Devs would be very upset and could end up dropping support.

Apple would want to keep a huge feature like that under wraps until they were ready to announce. There’s no way they would send a memo to all app developers to let them know. Only a select few would know if that was even a scenario.

I would hope Apple would find a way to virtualize the floating windows so the apps don’t need to know they are floating, but if they update their app to recognize it’s floating they could tap into extra features for the window. Devs could also force floating windows not to work for their app... at least for a few iOS releases to allow them time to plan and allocate resources to supporting the feature. In case something funky happens in the floating windows devs need a way to stop that and give time to work out the issue. Based in the history of split view, I don’t see Apple taking away that option to opt out of floating windows.

 

[secretk]

Apple can’t force app makers into immediate changes like that. Devs would be very upset and could end up dropping support.

Exactly! I am a former Developer, now leading a Developer team. You know we have our features and ideas about the product we do. No company/DEV waits just for Apple to release their new iOS version to migrate to it and want to work every year only on that. IMO sometimes Apple honestly discourages Developers and even end users with how often they change basic concepts like multitasking and copy/paste text. It ends up being annoying at certain point. Honestly.

 

[muzzy996]

If Apple could/would do that we wouldn't be forced to pick up a landscape oriented iPad when launching an iPhone only application that's presumably compatible with iPads according to the app store . . . *cough*Instagram*cough*

 

[JLOAKS]

I could see floating windows being a useful (mandatory) feature when using an external display.

 

[Marlon DLTH :)]

I could see floating windows being a useful (mandatory) feature when using an external display.

Yes, this would be the situation when it would be more useful

 

[ericwn]

I personally wouldn’t want floating windows on any iPad. I’ll just get my MacBook and be done with it at that point.

 

[wetcanvas]

This would be neat if you could pinch to zoom in and out and even rotate the window with your fingers.