Rumor Suggests iPadOS 19 to Get Some Mac-Like Tweaks, Like a Menu Bar

Majin Bu:

According to my source, Apple is gearing up for another major leap forward. With iPadOS 19 and iOS 19, expected in 2025, the gap between iPad, iPhone, and Mac continues to shrink. [...] One of the most exciting changes will benefit those using the iPad with a Magic Keyboard. When connected, the interface will adapt to show a menu bar at the top, just like on macOS, turning the iPad into a much more laptop-like experience.

Another key update is Stage Manager 2.0, an enhanced multitasking mode that activates automatically when the keyboard is attached. It will make managing apps and windows smoother and more productive than ever.

I don’t think it’s worth spending too much time thinking about these changes until we actually see what Apple is doing, but the menu bar is one of the great achievements in the history of UI design, and the Mac has always had the best design for a menu bar — at the top of the screen, not at the top of each window. Menu bars are such a great way to present and organize complexity. Moderately complex Mac apps typically have dozens of menu commands. More complicated apps can have 100 or more commands. I’ve never seen a plausible design for an app as complicated as, say, Xcode, BBEdit, or Photoshop without a menu bar. One of the reasons why Apple’s own apps are always better — and more capable — on MacOS than on iOS or iPad is that they’ve got more commands, better organized, because there’s a menu bar. Apple Notes, Apple Mail, the whole iWork suite — they’re all better on Mac, and they all have way more features on the Mac.

Reading a menu is also far more humane than scrutinizing icons. Sure, pick the handful of most-used commands and make them available in a toolbar of icons. But the full menu of commands should be written, not illustrated. You don’t order food in a serious restaurant by pointing at unlabeled pictures. You read the menu.

I know iPadOS today already supports a menu-bar-like HUD thing when you have a keyboard attached and hold down the Command key. I find that to be far less usable and far more distracting than a Mac-style menu bar. There’s a reason the Mac only shows you one menu at a time. Focus. The Mac menu bar is boring, but it’s boring in the best possible way. With the iPad’s current HUD menu, it’s like if the Mac dropped down every menu in an app at the same time. Presumably what Bu is describing is just making the iPad’s HUD menu present itself the way it should have from the start. I’ve always felt like iPadOS’s designers made the iPad’s HUD menu different from the Mac just to be different, not because it’s better — because I don’t see how it’s better in any way.

But the other problem is with the idea that iPadOS’s menu — whether as it stands today, as a HUD, or as this rumor suggests it might change, to be more like the Mac — is only available when you have a keyboard attached. Why shouldn’t users be able to access all menu commands when they’re just using the iPad via touch? It’s unnecessarily restrictive that the full list of commands in an app is only available when a keyboard is attached — especially for a device that many users never attach a keyboard to.

Bu continues:

iOS 19 isn’t being left behind. Source say that iPhones with USB-C will support external displays, offering a Stage Manager like interface. While not a full desktop mode, it will allow users to extend their screen space, great for presentations, editing, or enhanced viewing.

I often use my iPhone connected to a hardware keyboard, especially in the morning, while making coffee. And I seldom take an iPad with me when I travel any more — often/usually just my MacBook and iPhone. An iPhone with a Bluetooth keyboard is a great portable travel kit. (Apple’s own Magic Keyboard, for example, is remarkably lightweight.) All sorts of keyboard shortcuts that a Mac or iPad user is accustomed to work on an iPhone when using a keyboard, too.

But the one that’s missing that kills my productivity the most, takes me right out of the flow, is Command-Tab. It makes no sense to me why iOS doesn’t support Command-Tab. I personally don’t foresee ever attaching my iPhone to an external display (but I can see why some people would), but I really just hope that if this rumor comes to pass, it includes support for Command-Tab too.

★ Friday, 25 April 2025