How to Use Split Screen Mode on Your iPad (And How to Get Rid of It)

The iPad is now so feature-rich that some people are using it as a replacement for their computer for work, content creation, and entertainment. The main advantages of the iPad are its larger screen and extreme portability. Just like your laptop or desktop computer, you can split your screen into separate windows for different tasks. Not sure how to do this or need a refresher? Here’s a guide to split-screen mode on iPadOS 16.

If the Split View or Slide Over controls don’t seem to work in a particular app, that’s not a bug. Developers need to enable these features specifically for their apps, so they may be missing from older apps that just haven’t been updated for the latest version of iPadOS. Split View is also typically not available for graphics-intensive apps like games.

How to split an iPad screen into two windows

When Apple released iPadOS 15, it greatly simplified its multitasking interface, making using the split-screen feature more intuitive. Although Apple also introduced Stage Manager in iPadOS 16, the older – and arguably more useful – split-screen view remains.

Step 1: Start with the home screen and launch the app of your choice.

Step 2: Choose Three points at the top center of the screen to open the multitasking menu. If you don’t see the three dots above, it means the app you’re using doesn’t support split-screen multitasking feature.

Step 3: Choose shared view from the menu that appears. If you’re still using iPadOS 15, these may appear as three icons instead. In this case, you should choose the middle one of the three.

The current app moves to the left side of the screen and a message appears at the top asking you to choose a different app.

Step 4: From the home screen, select a second app the same way you would otherwise open an app. The first app slides back out to take up the left half of the screen, while the new app opens on the right half.

How to customize your split screen view on an iPad

Once you’ve got two apps running side by side in Split View, you can adjust how much space each takes up on your screen, or flip them to switch sides. Here’s how.

Step 1: To change how much space each app takes up, select the highlighted adjustment slider in the middle of the bar between apps, then drag it either left or right. Note that you cannot resize to an arbitrary width; The iPad limits you to 50/50 or 33/66 proportions.

Step 2: To reverse the layout of your apps, you can either select and hold Three points Menu at the top of the app you want to move and drag it to the other side, or select the menu once and then select shared view > left division or Divided right to move the app to the other side.

How to remove split screen on your iPad

Once you put an app in split-screen mode, your iPad remembers that arrangement even if you return to the home screen and open the app again. This can be really handy for apps you regularly use together, like Calendar and Reminders, but it can also complicate things if you only want to use Split View for a single session. Luckily, once you know where to look, it’s also pretty easy to get out of Split View.

Step 1: To close either app, select it Three points at the top of the app you want to remove, then select Close.

Step 2: To keep one app and remove the other, select the one Three points at the top of the app you want to keep on screen, then select full screen.

Step 3: Alternatively, you can just use the split view slider and drag it all the way to the edge of the screen to remove the app you no longer want to see.

How to use Slide Over feature on iPad

Slide Over is another feature of iPad’s multitasking mode. It’s similar to Split View, but shows one app in full screen and the second as a small floating window on the side of the screen. iPad tracks the apps you open in Slide Over so you can easily switch between them. This feature allows you to have multiple apps open and available at the same time.

Step 1: Launch the first app, select the three-dot menu* at the top, and choose slide over from the menu that appears.

The app will slide to the right side of the screen to reveal the home screen and a prompt will appear asking you to choose a different app.

Step 2: Select a second app on the home screen as usual.

The second app will open and the first one will slide back out from the right side and hover over it.

Step 3: Once you have an app open in Slide Over view, you can swipe off the edge of the screen to hide it, and swipe back in from the edge of the screen to show it again.

Step 4: You can open more apps in Slide Over by repeating the steps above, although you only see one app at a time. Slide Over view uses an iPhone-like layout to display and switch between apps.

You can swipe the handle at the bottom of the window up to bring up an app switcher and select an additional app, or drag the handle left or right to scroll through the apps you have open in Slide Over view, just like you would on an iPhone.

How to move content between apps on an iPad

When you have two or more apps open, you can drag and drop content, such as text or photos, between them. For example, you can drag text or images directly from an email, webpage, or photo app into your Notes app. Note that not every app supports using drag and drop in this way.

Step 1: Open two apps with the shared view or Slide over special feature.

Step 2: Select and hold the item you want to move from one app to the other.

Step 3: If the element comes off, gently pull it across without taking your finger off the screen. They realize green plus sign (+)which means you have successfully moved the content.

How to set up picture-in-picture mode on iPad

Thanks to the picture-in-picture mode, you can continue to watch videos in an overlay window while you do other tasks on your iPad, e.g. B. scrolling through your emails. Note that not all apps support the iPad’s picture-in-picture mode.

Step 1: First, make sure Picture-in-Picture is enabled on your iPad. This should be the default, but you can confirm this by opening the Ideas app and check below Generally > picture in picture; ensure that Start PiP automatically is on.

Step 2: Open a supported video app and start playing a video of your choice.

Step 3: Either return to the home screen or switch to another app. The video continues to play in an overlay window.

Step 4: You can adjust the size and position of the window by dragging it to another corner of your screen, or use a zoom gesture to resize it.

You can also temporarily hide the video window by dragging it off the edge of the screen. The video will continue to play in the background so you can still hear the audio.

Step 5: To return to full-screen view, select the picture-in-picture icon in the floating window or reopen the app where the video was originally playing. You can also close the video by selecting X button in the picture-in-picture window.

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