iPadOS 16

iPadOS 16
Version of the iPadOS operating system
File:IPadOS 16 icon.png
File:IPadOS 16 Homescreen.png iPadOS 16 home screen
Developer	Apple
Written in	C, C++, Objective-C, Swift, assembly language
OS family	Unix-like, based on Darwin (BSD), iOS
Source model	Closed with open-source components
General availability	October 24, 2022 (2022-10-24)
Latest release	16.7.12 (September 15, 2025 (2025-09-15)) [±]
Repository	{{URL|example.com|optional display text}}
Marketing target	Tablet computers
Available in	40 languages
Update method	OTA, software update through iTunes, 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 the Wayback Machine (archived November 22, 2022)
Tagline	Incredibly capable. Unmistakably iPad.
Support status
Supported. receiving security updates on iPads that do not support iPadOS 17. Widespread third-party app support.
Articles in the series
iOS 16

iPadOS 16 is the fourth major release of the iPadOS operating system developed by Apple for its iPad line of tablet computers. The successor to iPadOS 15, it was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) on June 6, 2022, along with iOS 16, macOS Ventura, watchOS 9, and tvOS 16. It received numerous new features, improving multitasking and many other aspects of the operating system, most notably on iPads with Apple's M1 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 as iPadOS 16.1.

iPadOS 16 is the final version of iPadOS that supports the first-generation iPad Pro and iPads without Apple Pencil compatibility, especially the fifth-generation iPad.

Features

See also: iOS 16 § Features

Freeform

Main article: Freeform (Apple)

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

Weather

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

Lock screen

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

Passkeys

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

Stage Manager

On iPads with Apple A12X Bionic, Apple A12Z Bionic, Apple M1 and Apple 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.

Display scaling mode

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

Reference Mode

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 has Apple Silicon.

Spoken Content

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

Notes

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

Files

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

Photos

• 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).

App toolbar

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

Criticism

iPadOS 16's Stage Manager feature has been criticized by various sources for only being supported by certain iPad models with an M1 chip or M2 chip owing to strict performance requirements. In an interview with TechCrunch, 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”. It was later discovered that the feature is disabled for older devices by an internal setting. Due to criticism, a single-screen version of Stage Manager was added on 2018 and 2020 iPad Pros in iPadOS 16.1 beta. Apple later provided a statement to Engadget, 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”.

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.

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

The lack of iOS 16's lock screen customization features was also criticized by reviewers such as David Pierce from The Verge. 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.

Supported devices

iPadOS 16 requires iPads with an A9 or A9X SoC or later, and drops support for the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 4, which include an A8X and A8 chip, respectively. 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 an A9 or A9X SoC have limited support. iPads with an A10 or A10X SoC get additional features that are unavailable on older iPads.

iPads with an A12, A13, A14, or A15 SoC has partial support.

iPads with an A12X or A12Z 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

Release history

Further information: IPadOS version history § iPadOS 16

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.

Previous release

Current release

Current beta release

Security response

iPadOS 16 releases

Version	Release date
16.1	October 24, 2022
16.1.1	November 9, 2022
16.2	December 13, 2022
16.3	January 23, 2023
16.3.1	February 13, 2023
16.4	March 27, 2023
16.4.1	April 7, 2023
16.4.1 (a)	May 1, 2023
16.5	May 18, 2023
16.5.1	June 21, 2023
16.5.1 (a)	July 10, 2023 (pulled after 10 hours)
16.5.1 (c)	July 12, 2023
16.6	July 24, 2023
16.6.1	September 7, 2023
16.7	September 21, 2023
16.7.1	October 10, 2023
16.7.2	October 25, 2023
16.7.3	December 11, 2023
16.7.4	December 19, 2023
16.7.5	January 22, 2024
16.7.6	March 5, 2024
16.7.7	March 21, 2024
16.7.8	May 13, 2024
16.7.9	July 29, 2024
16.7.10	August 7, 2024
16.7.11	March 31, 2025
16.7.12	September 15, 2025

See Apple's official release notes, and official security update contents.