iPad

You Might Not Even Notice This New iPadOS Feature

I forgot about it until I accidentally triggered it today

Sometimes you read about some new feature and then forget all about it until you need it — that’s an “Oh, yeah, I can do that now!” moment.

That’s not the case with the iPadOS 15 Shelf feature. I had completely forgotten about it, but even though I’ve been using IOS and iPadOS 15 all through the betas, I’ve never needed the Shelf. In fact, it was only today when I accidentally triggered it that I remembered it exists at all!

So what is the Shelf?

It’s an improvement to iPadOS windowing. I wouldn’t call it a great improvement because it doesn’t work with all apps and although I may have no clue how to make iPad windowing better, surely there must be a way.

How did I notice it? Take a look at the screenshot above. See the “Open in New Window” choice? That’s what starts setting up the Shelf. You get that menu by long pressing on something you want to open. Remember, this only works in some apps; Mail happens to be one of them.

Choose “Open in New Window” and you get a screen that looks like this: