iPadOS 16
Version of theiPadOS operating system
iPadOS 16 home screen
Developer	Apple
Written in	C,C++,Objective-C,Swift,assembly language
OS family	Unix-like, based onDarwin (BSD),iOS
Source model	Closed withopen-source components
General availability	October 24, 2022; 3 years ago (2022-10-24)
Latest release	16.7.12[1] (September 15, 2025; 2 months ago (2025-09-15)) [±]
Marketing target	Tablet computers
Available in	40 languages[2][3][4][5]
Update method	OTA, software update throughiTunes,Apple Configurator, or Finder
Package manager	App Store
Supported platforms	iPad,iPad Air,iPad Mini,iPad Pro
Kernel type	Hybrid (XNU)
Default user interface	Cocoa Touch (multi-touch,GUI)
License	Proprietary software with open-source components
Preceded by	iPadOS 15
Succeeded by	iPadOS 17
Official website	iPadOS 16 at theWayback Machine (archived November 22, 2022)
Tagline	Incredibly capable. Unmistakably iPad.
Support status
Supported. receiving security updates oniPads that do not supportiPadOS 17. Widespread third-party app support.
Articles in the series
iOS 16

iPadOS 16 is thefourth major release of theiPadOSoperating system developed byApple for itsiPad line oftablet computers. The successor toiPadOS 15, it was announced at the company'sWorldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2022, along withiOS 16,macOS Ventura,watchOS 9, andtvOS 16.^[6][7] It received numerous new features, improving multitasking and many other aspects of the operating system, most notably on iPads with Apple'sM1 SoC and later.

The public beta of iPadOS 16 was released on July 11, 2022. The public version of iPadOS 16 was released on October 24, 2022^[8] as iPadOS 16.1.^[9]

iPadOS 16 is the final version of iPadOS that supports thefirst-generation iPad Pro andiPads withoutApple Pencil compatibility, especially thefifth-generation iPad.

Freeform is a whiteboard app that lets users collaborate together in real time. It was released with iPadOS 16.2.

For the first time, Apple'sWeather app is available on the iPad. It was originally only available on the iPhone and iPod Touch.

The date and time on the lock screen have bold text and display the date above the time to match iOS 16, but lacks thecustomization features, which were later added iniPadOS 17.

iPads are able to sign into websites that implementWebAuthn using just the user’s passcode or biometrics.

On iPads withApple A12X Bionic,Apple A12Z Bionic,Apple M1 andApple M2 processors, Stage Manager displays up to four apps at a time in adjustable windows. In addition, on iPads with Apple M1 and later, external displays are now driven using Stage Manager instead of screen mirroring, enabling display scaling on external displays.

On iPads with Apple M1 processors and later, and iPad Pro 11-inch with Apple A12X Bionic and A12Z Bionic processors,^[10] Display scaling mode allows more view space in apps by increasing the pixel density of the display.

On the iPad Pro 12.9-inch(5th generation) and(6th generation) with Liquid Retina XDR display, the iPad can be used in "Reference Mode" for color-graded work. This extends to Sidecar, as long as the Mac being connected to hasApple Silicon.

As with iOS 16, some already supported languages have received additional voices (including "Novelty" voices for English), and voices and support have been added for the following languages:

• Bangla
• Basque
• Bhojpuri
• Bulgarian
• Catalan
• Croatian
• Galician
• Kannada
• Malay
• Marathi
• Persian
• Shanghainese
• Slovenian
• Tamil
• Telugu
• Ukrainian
• Vietnamese

More text indentation features are added, as well as the ability to create column tables.

Allows the changing of file extensions and showing all file extensions.

• Touch ID, Face ID or passcode is now required to view the Hidden and Recently Deleted albums, unless the user turns this off in Settings.
• Photos can now detect duplicate photos or videos. The user can choose to delete the duplicates or to merge them, so that the device retains the higher quality photo with relevant data from the duplicate(s).

Allows the customisation of toolbars to add tools, as well as editing the position of tools.

Theneutrality of this section isdisputed. Relevant discussion may be found on thetalk page. Please do not remove this message untilconditions to do so are met.(October 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

iPadOS 16's Stage Manager feature has been criticized by various sources for only being supported by certain iPad models with anM1 chip orM2 chip owing to strict performance requirements. In an interview withTechCrunch,Craig Federighi explained: “It’s only the M1 iPads that combined the high DRAM capacity with very high capacity, high-performance NAND that allows our virtual memory swap to be super fast”.^[11] It was later discovered that the feature is disabled for older devices by an internal setting.^[12] Due to criticism, a single-screen version of Stage Manager was added on 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros in iPadOS 16.1 beta.^[13]Apple later provided a statement toEngadget, stating that “…customers with iPad Pro 3rd and 4th generation have expressed strong interest in being able to experience Stage Manager on their iPads. In response, our teams have worked hard to find a way to deliver a single-screen version for these systems, with support for up to four live apps on the iPad screen at once”.^[14]

External display support for Stage Manager on M1 iPads was delayed until further notice by Apple due to instability, and was brought back in the iPadOS 16.2 update.^[15][16][17]

Stage Manager was also criticized for being "hard to use" and some reviewers and critics called the feature "fundamentally misguided".^[18]

The lack of iOS 16's lock screen customization features was also criticized by reviewers such as David Pierce fromThe Verge.^[19] iPadOS had a hidden lock screen customization app named PosterBoard which included the iOS 16’s lock screen customization features in iPadOS 16 Beta 1.^[20]

iPadOS 16 requires iPads with anA9 orA9XSoC or later, which means it drops support for theiPad Air 2 andiPad Mini 4, both with anA8 orA8X SoC. This also marks the second time Apple has dropped support for older 64-bit iPads. The iPad (5th generation) is the only supported iPad without Apple Pencil support. Alongside dropping support for the iPad Mini 4, the iPad Mini (5th generation) is the only supported iPad with the exclusive 7.9-inch display.

iPads with anA9 orA9X SoC have limited support.

iPads with anA10 orA10X SoC get additional features that are unavailable on older iPads.

iPads with anA12,A13,A14, orA15 SoC has partial support.

iPads with anA12X orA12Z has almost full support.

iPads with an M-series SoC have full support.

iPads that support iPadOS 16 are as follows.

• iPad (5th generation) or later
• iPad Air (3rd generation) or later
• iPad Mini (5th generation) or later
• iPad Pro 12.9-inch (1st generation)
• iPad Pro 9.7-inch
• iPad Pro 10.5-inch (2nd generation)
• iPad Pro 11-inch

The first developer beta of iPadOS 16 was released on June 6, 2022. The first public release, iPadOS 16.1, was officially released on October 24, 2022.

See Apple's officialrelease notes, and officialsecurity update contents.

• IPadOS
• Apple Inc. operating systems
• Mach (kernel)
• Mobile operating systems
• Products introduced in 2022
• Tablet operating systems

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