Design and develop iPad apps that leverage the large screen, Apple Pencil, Stage Manager multitasking, and keyboard support for professional productivity.
The iPad has evolved from a content consumption device into a genuine productivity platform used by creative professionals, students, medical practitioners, pilots, field engineers, and business executives. iPadOS provides capabilities that go far beyond scaled-up iPhone interfaces: Split View and Slide Over multitasking allow users to work with multiple apps simultaneously, Stage Manager provides desktop-class window management on iPad Pro and M-series iPads, Apple Pencil enables precise input for drawing, note-taking, and document annotation, and keyboard and trackpad support create a laptop-like productivity experience. Developing for iPad means designing for these capabilities rather than simply scaling your iPhone layout to a larger screen. A well-designed iPad app takes advantage of the twelve-point-nine-inch display with multi-column layouts, supports drag-and-drop for intuitive data transfer between apps and within the app, and provides keyboard shortcuts for all common actions. iPad users who invest in Magic Keyboard and Apple Pencil expect apps to support these input methods natively.
iPad apps must adapt gracefully to a wide range of display configurations: full screen in portrait and landscape orientations, Split View at one-third, one-half, and two-thirds widths, Slide Over as a narrow floating panel, and Stage Manager with resizable floating windows. SwiftUI's NavigationSplitView automatically provides a two or three-column layout appropriate for iPad, with a sidebar that collapses on iPhone. Use the horizontalSizeClass environment value to adapt your layout between compact (iPhone-sized) and regular (iPad-sized) presentations. GeometryReader and ViewThatFits provide additional tools for creating responsive layouts that adapt to available space. Design your iPad UI around a sidebar or tab-based navigation structure with detail views that use the full width of the display, avoiding the wasted space that results from simply centring an iPhone-width layout in the iPad screen. For content-rich apps, implement a three-column layout with sidebar navigation, a list view, and a detail view that maximises information density while maintaining readability.
Apple Pencil support can transform an iPad app from good to exceptional for creative, educational, medical, and annotation use cases. PencilKit provides a complete drawing canvas with tool palette, ink rendering, undo/redo, and palm rejection out of the box — suitable for note-taking, sketching, and document annotation without building custom drawing infrastructure. For custom drawing experiences beyond PencilKit's capabilities, use UIKit's touch handling with pencil-specific properties: azimuth angle for shading, altitude angle for tilt, force for pressure sensitivity, and predicted touches for lower-latency rendering. Apple Pencil hover detection on iPad Pro enables new interaction patterns where the pencil's proximity triggers preview effects before the tip touches the screen. The Pencil interaction API supports double-tap gestures on Apple Pencil 2nd generation for quick tool switching. Consider implementing pencil-specific features that add unique value — architectural apps can use the pencil for precise measurements, medical apps for anatomical annotation, and education apps for interactive diagrams.
Professional iPad users frequently connect a keyboard and trackpad, and they expect apps to support these input methods with the same level of polish as a Mac application. Implement keyboard shortcuts for all common actions using UIKeyCommand or SwiftUI's .keyboardShortcut() modifier, and make shortcuts discoverable by supporting the hold-Command overlay that displays available shortcuts. Focus system support enables keyboard-driven navigation through your interface using Tab and arrow keys, with visible focus indicators showing which element is currently selected. Trackpad support includes hover effects (showing tooltips or highlighting interactive elements when the pointer moves over them) and pointer customisation (changing the pointer shape to indicate different interaction types like resize handles or text insertion). Support the iPad hardware keyboard's shortcut conventions: Command-N for new, Command-S for save, Command-F for find, and Command-comma for settings. These keyboard shortcuts should be documented in a help menu accessible via Command-question mark.
Build a universal app in most cases. A single binary that adapts its interface for iPhone and iPad is easier to maintain and provides a better user experience for users who own both devices. Only build separate apps if the iPad version has fundamentally different functionality or business model.
Not required, but highly recommended for apps in creative, educational, medical, or annotation categories. Pencil support can significantly differentiate your app from competitors and is expected by professional iPad users who have invested in the pencil hardware.