Multitasking on iPad has come a long way over the years. It used to be double-tapping the Home button to reveal all open apps was a huge deal. Recent iPadOS versions have introduced huge innovations in gestures, multi-touch awareness, accessibility, mouse control, and many other small improvements to improve multitasking. I'm really looking forward to Universal Control where I can control iPads and external displays from my main Mac, but I'm waiting for it come out of beta on MacOS and iPadOS before I update.
Split View and Slide Over are perhaps two of the most misunderstood multitasking features for me. probably because I can never be bothered to actually learn how they work. There are a couple of ways to invoke both of them.
With an app open, tap the three dots that appear at the top of the screen:
The icons represent Center, Split View and Slide Over:
Choosing Split View lets you select another app. This lets you view both apps together on the screen. Scrolling or tapping in one window will not affect the other.
Use the grey slider in the middle of the screen to resize either window. Pull it completely to either side to exit out of Split View and enlarge the current window to fullscreen.
Slide Over works similarly except it places the current app in a smaller movable window. This may help when you want to have more flexibility in moving the window to different parts of the screen while still allowing input in either app. You can use the three dots at the top to change to Split View, or tapping the Center button will fullscreen the app. Pull the Slide Over window completely to one side to make it disappear.
For either Split View or Slide Over I prefer to use gestures since I find it a bit easier. Pull up from the bottom starting outside the screen to open the dockbar, hold your finger on an app and pull the app onto the screen. Dragging it to one side will open in Split View while holding it more in the center will open it in Slide Over.
Gestures are also very useful when switching between apps. Enable Gestures by going to Settings > General > Gestures. Using Four & Give Finger Swap allows you to "swipe" between open apps using those fingers. I find I use this very often since it's so quick and intuitive.
Recent iPads will also allow dragging and dropping between apps using multitasking. For example, you can drag a photo from Safari into Pages by having Pages open in Split View. Or, selecting some text allows it be dragged into Pages.
If you use a Mac then you can use Sidecar to use your iPad as a secondary display wirelessly. Besides the usual benefits of having another display, Sidecar gives you Touchbar buttons on your iPad even if your Mac doesn't have a physical touchbar! See
this support article for more info.
