If you have an iPad and an iPhone, this has happened to you at some point, maybe even all the time: You find yourself using functions and features specific to your tablet, and then you switch to iPhone and see that you can’t. do more of those things. If you can, everyday tasks will be easier and more efficient.
Apple brings even more new productivity tools to its tablet in iPadOS 16 that fit right in our pockets. Here’s our wish list of iPad features we’d like to see on the iPhone one day (soon).
Apple Pencil
It’s been seven years since iPad users received the gift of the wonderful invention known as the Apple Pencil, and you still it does not work on an iPhone. Although Steve Jobs famously hated the idea, we think the time has passed to make the Apple Pencil work on iPhones. After all, our iPhones are always in reach for things like notes and doodling, and features like handwriting-to-text conversion can be amazing. And now that the screen is bigger than 3.5 inches, we think Steve will like it too.
Imagine if that was an iPhone instead of an iPad under the Apple Pencil.
Foundry
Magic Keyboard
Maybe it’s just us, but since Apple finally came out with the floating Magic Keyboard for the iPad Pro, we’ve been wanting a smaller model for the iPhone. It may seem like a silly idea but think about it—placing your iPhone 14 Pro Max on a MagSafe stand with a MagSafe Duo-style fold-out keyboard for typing long emails and projects. The potential for improved work possibilities during travel alone would make it worth the likely $149 price tag.
Easy data transfer
The iPhone 15 is rumored to switch to USB-C, which means the iPhone and iPad will finally have the same connection. But we don’t know what the speeds mean. On the iPad, Apple limited the port on the iPad Air to 10 Gbps, which is faster than the 480 Mbps we get today. But we hope the Pro models get the Thunderbolt treatment like the M2 iPad Pro and support transfers at 40Gbps.
External displays
With iPadOS 16, Apple finally offers proper external display support for M1 and M2 iPad Pros through Stage Manager, but we think it will be practical for iPhones to have it, too. iPhone users can now use AirPlay to mirror content, but that’s mainly for video playback. The iPhone is a powerful computer that is somewhat limited by its small display. However, many people use iMovie, GarageBand, and other apps to create content that is easier to use on a larger screen.
Universal Control with iPhone can open up new possibilities.
Willis Lai/IDG
Split View
Over the years, iPad users have been able to use Split View as a great way to work between two different apps at the same time. Even though iPhones have smaller screens, they’re still large enough (especially for landscape viewing) to benefit from viewing apps side-by-side. Android phones have had split-screen multitasking for years, and we thought Apple could do it better.
Universal Control
A helpful tool for iPad and Mac users, Universal Control allows you to use an iPad as a wireless screen controlled by your Mac’s keyboard and mouse and work seamlessly between them. In fact, it’s not that big of a leap to extend that feature to iPhones as well so we don’t have to reach for our iPads all the time.
Stage Manager
OK, we get it, Stage Manager isn’t exactly one of the iPad’s best features. It’s still a work in progress, but while using it over the past few months, we can see how it can be a real asset on the iPad for working with multiple apps at once. We’re not sure if it will work on the iPhone—the Stage Manager interface definitely needs to be retooled for the smaller screen—but we’d certainly like to see Apple try.