The iPad’s operating system, iPadOS, had a welcome upgrade this fall, but it’s not as radical an overhaul as the iPhone’s or Mac’s. The tablet’s Lock Screen gained new customization options, including widgets, bringing it up to date with the iPhone which acquired these features last year. The iPad gets a Health app with iPadOS 17, and it’s optimized for the larger screen, allowing developers to better display their data and make it accessible for review.
The Messages app, which has long been a favorite among iPad users, has had an interface overhaul, giving easier access to attachments such as photos, stickers and more. You can also now create Live Stickers by lifting subjects from your photos.
A new AutoFill feature, coming later this year, makes working with PDFs easier than ever. If you have a form to fill in, iPadOS detects text fields and lets you add names, addresses and emails directly from your Contacts app. You can collaborate when annotating PDFs stored in the Notes app too, and link individual notes to make it easy to find related content.