iPadOS 26 Beta 7 Now Available With Improved Productivity Features
Apple is getting closer to the official release of iPadOS 26, as evidenced by the arrival of iPadOS 26 beta 7 today. With this new version, we expect the company to improve the general stability of the iPadOS experience, while fixing bugs and working on increasing battery life.
This upcoming iPadOS 26 update focuses on new productivity features, as one of the highlights of beta 7 is the new Preview app. While it's also available for Mac users in macOS Tahoe, Apple says the Preview app was designed to work with the iPad and Apple Pencil, as you can sign documents, edit a PDF, or sketch with it.
The Files app has been super-powered by new view columns and the ability to change the color of the folders. Not only that, but the Shortcuts app now takes advantage of Apple Intelligence, so you can even create your own chatbot running locally on your tablet.
How Apple Intelligence and Liquid Glass change iPadOS 26
It's not only the Shortcuts app where Apple Intelligence has been given an upgrade. Powered by ChatGPT, Apple's AI now features onscreen awareness and new Image Playground styles, while the company's own models have improved Genmoji and Writing Tools capabilities.
With the new Liquid Glass design, Apple is making the experience of switching between the iPhone, iPad, and Mac more seamless. While all of these new software updates feature similar user interfaces, Apple added Mac-like menus to the iPad — including the iconic traffic light buttons — to its tablet as well as new "File," "Edit," and "Window" menus.
Apple also offers a major improvement to iPads incapable of running Stage Manager, which is a new windowing system. The new system allows users to have multiple windows open on the display at the same time. The company also lets tasks run in the background for the first time, which is useful when you're exporting a video but want to work on something else in the meantime. Alongside iPadOS 26 beta 7, Apple released the seventh beta versions of iOS 26, macOS Tahoe, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26.