How I Use the new iOS Multitasking Features for iPad

Hi, everyone. This is Lara Hammock from the Marble Jar Channel and in today’s video, I’ll show you how I use some of the new multitasking features in iOS 11. 

I just downloaded iOS 11 and wasted a couple of hours one morning geeking out figuring out all of the new features. There are a bunch of new things, but in this video, I’ll talk about some of the ways that I use multitasking.

App Switching

I have been a huge fan of multitasking since it was first introduced.  By far the feature I use the most is app switching. Basically, this is the ability to switch between apps without going back to the home screen.  You used to do this by swiping up with four fingers to reveal the multitasking screen.  It didn’t work with three — you had to use four.  With iOS 11 there are now 2 ways to app switch without going back to the home screen. You can do a small swipe from the bottom, which reveals the Dock.  I find this to be a little harder to do when the keyboard is displayed.  The dock holds your most used apps and stays the same from screen to screen. The nice thing is that on the right, it now includes the 3 apps you used the most recently that aren’t held in your regular dock. Pushing any of these icons will switch the app.  You can also do a larger single finger swipe, which reveals the new multitasking screen. You can also get there by double clicking the home button just like before or doing the 4 fingered pull up — although why you would ever do this again when there are easier options, I don’t know.  I like the new set up better since 1) the Control Center is all contained on a single screen rather than having to swipe between 2 screens and 2) the apps are tiled rather than layered, which makes them easier to see.   By the way, you can still switch to the last app used using a horizontal four fingered swipe.   I will still use this until they provide a less awkward way to accomplish it!

Split Screen - Slide Over

Slide over is a new concept for the iPad and works only for apps that support multitasking. First you have to do a small swipe to reveal the Dock. Then, instead of tapping an icon, you drag it to the right side of the screen. Now it is hovering on the screen, but it has full functionality. In other words, you can type into that small screen while it’s hovering.  I’m getting used to this new feature, so the verdict is still out for me. It bothers me a little that it blocks an area of the main screen.  The good news is, you can move it from the right side to the left by using the little handle on top. OR you can move it off the screen entirely and then get it back by swiping from the right.  If it doesn’t work the first time, it’ll usually reveal a little handle that you can use to swipe it back onto the screen.  Here are some ways that I use this:

• Email/Text - I have terrible working memory, so any time I need to transfer something to email — particularly numbers — I’d much rather use the copy function. But that isn’t always possible, so then I just pull it up, so that I don’t have to switch back and forth between apps while transposing. 
• Safari/Contacts - When I’m placing a gift order on Amazon, I can pull up contacts to have the address right visible while I’m typing it into the address fields. 
• Notability/Evernote - When I’m filling out a permission form for one of my kids in Notability, I can pull up Evernote to fill in insurance information.
• Peapod/AnyList - When I’m placing a grocery order through PeaPod, I can have my AnyList shopping list there rather than switching between screens. Here’s a situation where one of the apps doesn’t support multitasking yet (get on it, PeaPod), so I pull AnyList on and off the screen to prevent it from blocking the PeaPod app features. 

Split Screen

Another option is to pull the slide over app up to the top of the screen (using the handle) and split the screen. You can only do this if the main app supports this. You’ll know if it doesn’t since it just won’t pull up.  Also, if you try to slide up an app that doesn’t support this, it’ll just switch entirely to that app. This isn’t new, but it is new that you can now decide how big the app windows should be: 1/4 on the right, half and half, or 1/4 on the left.  The benefit is that none of the main app is covered up, but each app gets a smaller screen. Here are just some of the ways I use Split Screen:

• Email/Google Calendar - When I get an email with all of the field hockey tournament games for the weekend and need to put them into my calendar. I don’t have to switch back and forth between screens or remember scads of info like field name, game time, or color of jersey. 
• Safari/Evernote - When I’m doing web research and taking notes in Evernote or in Google Keep if I’m handwriting the notes. 
• Safari/Google Sheets - When I’m doing my monthly financial reporting, I can have both mint.com open and Google Sheets to transpose the information. 
• Photos/Email - When I’m emailing someone, I can now just drag and drop photos onto the email from Split screen. This is just one of many drag and drop functions added with this new release. 

Safari Split Screen

The last thing I’ll share with you that I use all the time is split screen in Safari.  There may be other apps that support this, but Safari is the only one I know about. To get 2 screens, you just drag a tab over to either the right or left hand sides until a new screen opens up. To get rid of it, you just close the open tabs in the screen you want to get rid of.  There are lots of uses for this also, but here’s just one of mine. When I’m considering watching a movie with my kids, I will look up the rating on rottentomatoes.com on one side and on the recommended age on commonsensemedia.org on the other.  

That’s it. Let me know what you think!  Comments are always appreciated and thanks for watching!