For the past year, we’ve been anticipating a refreshed iPad mini, and rumors suggest it’s imminent. A recent leak from Aaron Perris revealed the device should pack an A20 Pro processor and slimmer bezels, while we already know it’ll include an OLED display and water-resistant construction.
Those hardware improvements are welcome, but I have one significant software request for the next iPad mini. After experiencing the iPhone’s multitasking implementation, I’m impressed by how elegantly Apple handled it. Multitasking on iPad has always felt clunky to me, whereas the iPhone’s approach feels refined.
On a compact screen, traditional windowed multitasking on the iPad mini never seemed practical. Users probably aren’t juggling multiple overlapping windows on such a small display. That’s why I want Apple to borrow one clever feature from the iPhone: split-screen with picture-in-picture.
This would be a fantastic experience. Currently, there’s no way on iPad mini to make a picture-in-picture window span the full device width in portrait orientation, and even if there were, it would either obscure part of your app or require manual resizing via windowing controls.
Bringing video-and-app split view to the iPad mini’s display seems obvious, especially since the iPhone and iPad mini share similar aspect ratios. Personally, I’d use an iPad mini in portrait mode far more often if this capability existed.
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