Apple is all set to give a major upgrade to the iPadโs lock screen and home screen. The tech titan unveiled the upcoming operating system โ iPadOS 17 at its annual developer conference earlier this month. The upcoming version of iPadOS brings a slew of new features including visual changes, system-wide improvements, and much more.
If you are an iPad user and want to know about the iPadOS 17, then you are in the right place, hereโs all about the iPadOS 17 including features, supported devices, roadmap, and more.
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iPadOS 17 Supported Devices
iPadOS 17 represents a significant software upgrade for iPads, and Apple has made changes to the eligibility criteria for this year’s update. It is worth noting that iPadOS 17 is not available for certain models, including the first-generation iPad Pro, and possibly others.
Here is the complete list of Apple Watches that are compatible with iPadOS 17:
- iPad Pro 12.9-inch (2nd generation and later)
- iPad Pro 10.5-inch
- iPad Pro 11-inch (1st generation and later)
- iPad Air (3rd generation and later)
- iPad (6th generation and later)
- iPad mini (5th generation and later)
iPadOS 17 Release Date
Apple first showed off iPadOS 17 at its annual developer conference WWDC 23. Right after the announcement, the new software goes live for developers for testing purposes. If you are a developer or simply want to try out the new features, then you can download the developer beta update on your iPad.
Note: Developer Beta builds are not made for daily use, I recommend you to wait for public beta at least.
The tech titan has already released two beta builds of iPadOS 17. Talking about the public beta availability, then it will be released early next month. The public beta will be more stable for daily use, so, you can wait for a few days.
Talking about the public release, then the iPadOS 17 will be released later this fall. Just like every year, Apple will share the release dates at its next iPhone launch event.
iPadOS 17 Features
iPadOS 17 brings a whole new way to personalize iPadโs lock screen. Apart from that, there are interactive widgets, better compatibility for PDFs, updated Messages app, new wallpapers, widgets to the home screen, stage manager improvements, support for live activities, and more.
Lock Screen Changes
The renowned lock screen customization features of the iPhone are now also available for the iPad. The new personalization tools allow users to add widgets to the lock screen (in landscape mode), change the clock’s font and color, stylize the background from the wallpaper gallery, set a dynamic live photo, pick photos from the personal library and shuffle throughout the day, create a unique wallpaper with emojis and color combinations, and much more.
With iPadOS 17, Apple brings a big list of cool wallpapers to the iPad, including the new Kaleidoscope and Astronomy backgrounds optimized for the big screen, the first-generation iPad wallpaper, and Hello wallpapers are also available in the wallpaper gallery. We have already shared the default wallpapers of iPadOS 17, you can check it out here.
The lock screen now supports widgets that are only visible in landscape mode, iPadOS 17 also brings support for live activities, which allows you to keep an eye on a live game’s score, track delivery parcels, flight timings, and much more.
Widgets Changes for Home Screen
Just like iOS 17, you can now interact with the compatible widgets on the home screen. Currently, you can interact with the stock Apple widgets, like you can turn on the lights from the Home widget, play a song from Music widget, and more. It will be expanded to third-party widgets in the coming days.
A Whole New PDF Experience
If you are using iPad for productivity stuff and especially work more with PDFs, then you will be glad to know that iPadOS 17 lets you easily enter information into PDFs. The operating system will automatically identify fields in PDFs so users can easily fill in or edit details such as name, address, email, contact, and more.
The same new PDF experience is also available for the Notes app on iPadOS 17, users can easily organize, read, annotate, and collaborate on PDFs. You can also mark up PDFs and scanned documents right in the note.
Messages app gets New Tools and More
Just like iOS 17, the Messages app on iPadOS gets a number of useful tools including the new user interface, new stickers experience, live stickers, audio messages transcription option, share with you, and more.
iPadOS 17 allows users to create stickers directly from images. Stickers are now available everywhere emojis are available to use. It has a sticker drawer that shows all stickers, emojis, memojis in one place and is synced with iCloud, which means stickers are accessible from different devices with the same account.
Stage Manager Improvements
Stage Manager now lets you more flexibly position or resize windows. Initially, it was limited to a couple of predefined sizes, but now you can resize it in more sizes than before. Not only this but, the Stage Manager also gets support for built-in cameras and an external display.
New Health App
The all-new Health app is now available for iPad. You can keep an eye on your health data, thanks to the optimized design for the iPad display, the Favorites page gets a new look. iPad users can also stay updated with their medications, use Cycle Tracking, and also log into other health data.
Other Changes
- FaceTime: You can record a message and send it to the user when the status is offline. You can also react with your hands and use it with Apple TV as well.
- Safari Browser Improvements: Safari gets profiles, which allow users to keep browsing separately between work and personal. Private Browsing receives an extra layer of security, it will now ask users to unlock with Face ID or Touch ID.
- Freeform: Freeform app gets a number of new drawing tools.
- Keyboard: Apple make changes to the keyboard and brings improvements to autocorrect, allowing users to enter text faster and easier than ever before.
- Siri: You can now activate Siri by simply saying Siri.
- Maps: You can download and store maps offline on your iPad and iPhone.
iPadOS 17 Beta
As of now, developers can try out the iPadOS 17 and the company has released two beta builds already. The public beta is expected to be available in the next couple of weeks. Finally, the public build will release in September. If you want to install iPadOS 17 beta on your iPad to test its features, you can use our dedicated guide to get iPadOS 17 on your iPad easily for free.
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