iPad Multitasking in iOS 11 on iPP 10.5

[matt2053]

It’s kind of the equivalent of opening the Applications folder on the Mac if your program isn’t in the dock. They need to extend it to working from Spotlight as well though.

1. I can put way more than 13 apps in my macOS dock.
2. Many apps on my iPad are just web apps on the desktop, so I have way MORE apps on iOS.
3. In iOS 10 I can easily open a 2nd app next to my current app without leaving the current app, regardless of whether or not it's in the dock, so I fail to see how this isn't a step backwards.
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If it’s a regular use app, just move it to the dock. It’ll hold like 13 apps now. My most used are in there and I’m finding that to be pretty easy way to go.

I have more than 13 regular-use apps. I'm regularly switching between...

1. Mail
2. Safari
3. Facebook
4. Twitter
5. Confluence
6. Skype
7. GoToMeeting
8. Slack
9. Word
10. Excel
11. Notes
12. Reminders
13. Viber
14. iMessage
15. iCloud Drive or Files
16. Hangouts
17. LinkedIn
18. ESPN
19. MLB
20. Yahoo
21. Drive
22. Sheets
23. Docs
24. Keynote

Then there are the less frequent ones like a few times a day I log my meals in MyFitnessPal, etc.

So I will always have the desire to open a non-docked app in slide over view. And what I'm hearing is that in order to do that, I now must leave the app I am in, return to the home screen, and perform some complicated conjuring sequence to open the app I was in back up with the 2nd app along side it now.

This was super simple in iOS 10-- just swipe from the right, and pulll down to switch apps. I can't see how the new flow is anything other than a step back in that regard.

 

[Feenician]

Maybe I'm missing something and you can explain it so I understand better.

I'm in a full screen app. I want to open a 2nd app on the right. The 2nd app is not in my dock. What's the easy way to open it?

If step 1 is to go to the home screen, I'm afraid that's worthless. I might as well single-task at that point. The idea here is to be able to open a 2nd app without having to leave the first one.

If you have a hardware keyboard. Command + space to open spotlight, search and drag
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Yeah, I know the difference between those two modes, but couldn’t figure out how to open the two apps together once I entered that mode. The method suggested above works fine and is reasonably easy to remember.

Well if you don't hover long enough to enter wiggle mode dragging one icon over another still does what you ask.

 

[zhenya]

1. In can put way more than 13 apps in my macOS dock.
2. Many apps on my iPad are just web apps on the desktop, so I have way MORE apps on iOS.
3. In iOS 10 I can easily open a 2nd app next to my current app without leaving the current app, regardless of whether or not it's in the dock, so I fail to see how this isn't a step backwards.

How did you open a 2nd app in iOS 10 if it wasn’t one of the ones that populated the list when you pulled in from the side? (I honestly don’t remember - multi-tasking was so bad in iOS10 that I almost never used it).

For me the Spotlight option would largely fix this. I can invoke Spotlight quickly from my keyboard, and then it would make logical sense that you could drag that app over the app that is visible behind the Spotlight UI. You can currently grab that icon and move it, but it doesn’t do anything. (Scratch that - it does work - just drag the icon all the way to one side of the screen and it opens in split view behind the Spotlight UI.

Overall I still think multi-tasking in iOS needs a major overhaul. It feels like they are trying to hard to make it different from a desktop OS just to be different. I wish they would just give up the default full-screen for all apps and let us choose what size an app opens - ie. I’d almost always want my messaging apps or calculator to open as a floating window - then let me use multi-touch to re-size each window.

Try out the 4-finger pinch gesture to close an app and go to the home screen. Use that method right there - the UI is already in place - let me re-size and place each window exactly where I want it. That feels like a natural way to multitask on the ipad. Not this pieced together method that’s nearly impossible to discover.
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If you have a hardware keyboard. Command + space to open spotlight, search and drag
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Well if you don't hover long enough to enter wiggle mode dragging one icon over another still does what you ask.

Ok, I got the Spotlight method to work now. That’s a pretty good method, although it defaults to split view rather than a floating window.

The dragging icons on top of each other method does not appear to work for me anymore. Possibly a bug. PB3 is much buggier for me than PB2 was.

 

[matt2053]

How did you open a 2nd app in iOS 10 if it wasn’t one of the ones that populated the list when you pulled in from the side? (I honestly don’t remember - multi-tasking was so bad in iOS10 that I almost never used it).

For me the Spotlight option would largely fix this. I can invoke Spotlight quickly from my keyboard, and then it would make logical sense that you could drag that app over the app that is visible behind the Spotlight UI. You can currently grab that icon and move it, but it doesn’t do anything.

In iOS 10, ALL multi-tasking-enabled apps appeared in that list, so that wasn't a problem.

Spotlight would help when a keyboard is attached but I would still find swiping in from the right faster and easier than swiping down from the top (because my thumb is already right there!)

 

[zhenya]

In iOS 10, all multi-tasking-enabled apps appeared in that list, so that wasn't a problem.

Spotlight would help when a keyboard is attached but I would still find swiping in from the right faster and easier than swiping down from the top (because my thumb is already right there!)

That method worked when there were relatively few multitasking enabled apps, but it was a terrible solution for a future when all apps multitask.

 

[IndianBird]

I guess I just don’t need much more than this.

 

[zhenya]

I guess I just don’t need much more than this.

That’s fine - what sucks right now is the implementation of how to set that up. I find all the methods of invoking, resizing, moving, and dismissing apps in multi-tasking mode very finicky. It feels like it should be a lot smoother.

 

[matt2053]

That method worked when there were relatively few multitasking enabled apps, but it was a terrible solution for a future when all apps multitask.

I think it could have been improved without abandoning it completely. And even with it's flaws, I found flicking through that list to have less friction than going back to the home screen, and having to find both app icons, and trying to open them up at the same time.