What else is new in iPadOS 14?
While lending many of its ideas to the Mac, the iPad continues to gain features of its own that make it feel less unlike a desktop computer
Many of iPadOS 14’s default apps now have sidebars that visibly organize your content. Like the earlier introduction of the Files app, this acknowledges a need resisted in early versions of iOS for fear of complicating things.
The Files app itself showcases new desktop–style pull–down menus, reminiscent of macOS Big Sur. These complement the now ubiquitous options menus, which pop down from an icon showing three dots in a circle. More thought has also gone into the pickers that pop up to let you set a calendar date or select a photo from outside the Photos app.
INTERACTION PLAN
iPadOS 13 had already brought the ability to control a cursor with a connected mouse or the Magic Keyboard’s trackpad, which is compromised only by a scarcity of full support in third–party apps. We do wish, though, that more hardware keyboard shortcuts could be provided for core features, like iPadOS’ multitasking capabilities, that currently rely on gestures that take effort to perform and are tricky to memorize.
Accessibility gets more small enhancements. VoiceOver Recognition detects UI components in third–party apps and websites to help you navigate successfully, and can read out text recognized within images. VoiceOver can still feel a bit glitchy, though, and hasn’t fully caught up with additions like widgets. A new feature, General > Accessibility > Sound Recognition, offers a list of everyday noises, from “Fire” and “Water Running” to “Dog” and “Baby Crying,” that can be detected through your iPad’s mics and trigger a notification. We had patchy results with this, and there’s no way to teach it, so although it might seem handy to have iPadOS listen for the door while you work with your headphones on, it’s a bit hit and miss. Activating it means turning off “Hey, Siri.”
LISTEN HARDER
Headphone accommodations are among several notable additions for AirPod users, allowing you to adjust frequencies to suit your hearing. This works with the basic wired EarPods as well as second–gen AirPods, AirPods Pro, and some Beats headphones. With AirPods Pro, you can also use Transparency mode to boost sounds around you, including speech. AirPods Pro also gain spatial audio with dynamic head tracking, supported by an AirPods Pro Motion API that’ll enable new effects in games and fitness apps. And both AirPods Pro and second-gen AirPods can automatically switch between your iPad and iPhone or Mac (paired via iCloud) when you play audio.
The Music app gets better search and autoplay selections, and a new full–screen live lyrics display — but this is somehow not full–screen, taking up nearly half the space with album art and controls in landscape and not much less in portrait.
Voice Memos gains folders and a non–destructive Enhance Recording option to cut background noise and echo. Reminders gains quite a few features, including more smart suggestions and the ability to assign reminders to users. The App Store shows a better at–a–glance view of each app’s key details; slightly oddly, this is also the place to find your achievements for Apple Arcade titles and see what your friends are playing via Game Center — these two services still lack their own apps.
iPadOS doesn’t share all the innovations in iOS 14. It’s even been robbed of a feature…
Bedtime mode, previously in the Clock app’s Alarm screen, is superseded by Sleep in the Health app, but this still doesn’t exist on the iPad. FaceTime moves up to 1080p on compatible iPads, but lacks iOS 14’s option to fake eye contact when you’re looking at the screen instead of the camera. There’s no Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Back Tap, ie no ability to touch the back of the iPad to perform actions, and the new Translate app is iOS– only for now. App Clips (contextual single–use apps that download and run in response to a link) are supported by iPadOS 14 but can’t be triggered by a contactless smart sticker, since iPads don’t have NFC. You’ll need to scan a QR code (or an App Clip code later in the year) or tap a link in a Maps place card.