iPadOS 15 ruined my iPad’s homescreen

There’s a number of promise and potential in iPadOS 15. Even with some options like SharePlay lacking from the preliminary launch, others like Quick Note and a dramatically easier method to multitasking already enhance the day-to-day expertise of utilizing Apple’s tablets.

But Apple positive did handle to bungle the homescreen.

As my colleague Chaim talked about in his assessment of iPadOS 15, the homescreen structure is not constant between vertical and horizontal orientations. I’ve been utilizing the 12.9-inch iPad Pro since 2018, and as of iPadOS 14, the homescreen grid was all the time 6 x 5 regardless of how the iPad was being held. This allowed me to arrange devoted rows for issues like photograph modifying (I edit a lot of my assessment images on the iPad), audio apps, video apps, and so forth.

But with iPadOS 15, Apple threw a wrench into all that. When the iPad is in panorama mode, I nonetheless get the 6 x 5 structure. But now, as quickly as I swap to vertical / portrait, the grid inexplicably adjustments to five x 6, with icons flowing down into the row under them. So a lot for my makes an attempt at group and protecting issues tidy.

It’s a irritating change, and it ends in a really apparent quantity of wasted house on the sides of the display. The icon spacing in vertical orientation will get nearly comical on this massive, pixel-rich show if you happen to do drop in some widgets, as you’ll see later.

The greatest clarification I’ve seen for this discount in icon density is that it was essential to help the extra versatile widget placement and nonetheless maintain every little thing trying considerably uniform and aesthetically pleasing. It additionally has to do with how Apple maps out widgets on the homescreen. In his assessment of iOS and iPadOS 15 at MacStories, Federico Viticci surmised that Apple selected to “return to a non-dense grid that allows for both widgets and icons at the same time.” But I’m simply not on board. Particularly on iPads, we’re on the level the place at the very least having the choice for a extra tightly-packed grid would unlock new promise and creativity. Apple nonetheless doesn’t even allow empty gaps between icons or widgets. Instead, the corporate stays weirdly devoted to its restrictive, always-from-the-top-left placement.

I’m positive there are various improbable widgets on the market at this level, and the brand new XL measurement — unique to the iPad — does open up extra potentialities for calendar widgets and different productiveness instruments. But personally, I simply don’t discover myself utilizing them usually, and I used to be completely okay with the previous type of protecting widgets anchored to the left of the principle homescreen, the place they could possibly be pulled into view when wanted after which simply dismissed.

But then we transfer on to iPadOS 15. And my first criticism comes proper in the beginning. For some cause, Apple finds it applicable to plop a number of widgets onto your iPad’s homescreen instantly after the replace, which is able to throw no matter ordering you had earlier than into disarray. It appears to be like fairly dangerous. Here’s mine on first boot following the iPadOS 15 improve, the place in portrait we drop from six rows to 4… on a 12.9-inch display… all for the aim of showcasing widgets:

Yikes. What a ham-fisted manner of introducing a brand new function to prospects. Why not simply present folks a one-time video overlay that explains these extra versatile, put-them-where-you-want widgets as a substitute of wrecking precise homescreens? I’d be irked if some macOS replace dumped a bunch of random junk onto my desktop, and I’m equally irritated by what Apple’s carried out right here.

It additionally illustrates the numerous tradeoff that comes with widgets: as quickly as you add even one, regardless of the dimensions, you’re down to only 4 rows for that homescreen in portrait mode. On a show as expansive because the 12.9-inch iPad Pro, that’s brutal. And once more, it’s all due to Apple’s fixation with the grid. This is an issue of the corporate’s personal making. At least you’ll be able to cram a ton of apps into the dock, I assume?

With somewhat rearranging, I used to be capable of get again to the place issues had been earlier than — however solely within the panorama orientation. As I discussed earlier, portrait is now restricted to a 5 x 6 grid (even when no widgets are current), and there’s no setting to vary this again to the previous structure. All that wasted house. And for what? This is even noticeable on smaller iPads; in his review of the new iPad Mini, Marques Brownlee couldn’t assist however discover the padding on either side of the homescreen.

Image: MKBHD (YouTube)

It’s truthful to level out that in iPadOS 14, there was wasted display actual property on the prime and backside of the icon grid when in vertical orientation. But I feel it’s much better for familiarity and muscle reminiscence to take care of the identical app positioning and structure in each situations, so I discovered that acceptable. This? Not a lot.

What frustrates me most concerning the new homescreen is that it’s not possible to make rows for particular functions, since one icon will all the time reflow into the subsequent row while you maintain the iPad in portrait. Sure, folders exist, however that’s an additional faucet. Some have identified that iPadOS 15 now lets you customise completely different layouts for the homescreen when in portrait or panorama, and it’ll bear in mind what goes the place. But the preliminary jumbled mess when altering orientations is jarring, and having separate layouts doesn’t repair the difficulty of icons leaping round.

As of the brand new replace, Apple has additionally ditched the handy panorama “today view” that displayed the date and time with widgets beneath — all whereas protecting your apps in straightforward attain. Your selections now are to place widgets immediately on the homescreen or, if you happen to desire to maintain them off, you’ll be able to swipe proper for this blurred slide-over model, which is fantastic, however much less elegant:

Some will see this as a really minor inconvenience and stick with it with updating to iPadOS 15 for all the different advantages. Since the App Library is now there, you’ll be able to even go within the full reverse course and cargo your homescreens up with widgets all over the place and just a few app icons. If that’s you, don’t let me cease you. On the entire, it’s an excellent launch.

But I’m actually hoping in a future software program replace, Apple will add a setting to revive the previous structure that stored every little thing extra constant. It’d be even higher if the corporate made the grid extra customizable on the entire. If we’re letting folks select between new and previous Safari designs, why not provide a alternative between having extra issues on-screen or a much less dense grid that’s higher optimized for widgets? There’s already a “Home Screen and Dock” part of settings, in any case. Letting you regulate the grid to your liking is one thing that Android telephones and tablets already get proper. It’s not an enormous ask.

For me, widgets aren’t definitely worth the homescreen trying completely different primarily based on how I’m holding my iPad. And I’m not alone, with different iPad homeowners on MacRumors, Reddit, and elsewhere venting about these adjustments. Some of them have downgraded again to iPadOS 14.8 till there’s an answer. I’ve now carried out so for the second time (I wanted these screenshots) even when I’ll miss Quick Note, the much-improved multitasking, and different refinements of iPadOS 15.

I don’t know the way lengthy I’ll keep on the older software program. Once iPadOS 15 is a little more polished or provides SharePlay again in, I’d replace. But a well-recognized homescreen that works the way in which I count on counts for lots.