iPadOS 17 takes iPad even further. With new levels of personalization, beautiful and helpful custom Lock Screens, and features to help you get more done, iPad is more capable than ever.
Make iPad your own by creating a stunning custom look for your Lock Screen. Select a jaw-dropping wallpaper like Astronomy, perfect for the large display. Or Kaleidoscope, which animates as you rotate iPad. Browse a gallery of collections for inspiration.
Motion effect for Live Photo wallpaper
An all-new motion effect for Live Photos makes your Lock Screen feel more dynamic than ever when you wake iPad, and settles into your Home Screen when unlocked.
Live Activities
Use Live Activities to stay on top of things happening in real time, right from your Lock Screen. Keep track of a food order, a flight, a score, and more.
Widgets on your Lock Screen
Add your favorite widgets to the Lock Screen to see information like the weather, time, date, battery levels, or upcoming events at a glance.
Interactive Widgets
Take action with just a tap
Play music, turn off the lights, and more. Right from a widget.
Take action with just a tap
Interact with a widget from your Home Screen or Lock Screen. Complete a to-do, play or pause a song or podcast, or access your Home controls to get tasks done right in the moment.
Messages
All your iMessage apps in one place
Tap the new plus button to view all the things you send the most — like photos, audio messages, and your location. Swipe up to view the rest of your iMessage apps.
Catch-up and swipe to reply
A new catch-up arrow lets you jump to the first message you haven’t seen in a conversation. And now you can swipe to the right on any message to send a reply.
Search filters
Find the message you’re looking for faster by combining search filters to quickly narrow your search.
A new way to share and view locations
Share your location or request a friend’s location from the plus button. When someone shares a location with you, view it directly within your conversation.
Read an audio message transcription
Audio messages are now transcribed, so you can read them in the moment and listen later.
All your stickers in one place
The new sticker drawer lets you access all your Live Stickers, emoji, Memoji, and other sticker packs in one place. Your stickers sync with iCloud so they are available on your iPhone, iPad, and Mac devices.
Stickers
Create one-of-a-kind stickers
Use your own photos to create Live Stickers.
Stylize Live Stickers with effects
Add effects like Shiny, Puffy, Comic, and Outline or create animated Live Stickers made with Live Photos.
Use your stickers in more places
Your sticker drawer is in the emoji keyboard, so you can use stickers anywhere you can access emoji — including apps from the App Store. Use Markup to add stickers to photos, documents, screenshots, and more.
FaceTime
Leave a message
Record a video or audio message when someone misses your FaceTime call.
Leave a message
Whether you’re just calling to say hello or want to share a special moment, you can capture what you wanted to say in a video or audio message. You get all the same video effects that make you look your best in FaceTime, like Portrait mode and Studio Light. Your messages can also be played on Apple Watch.
React with your hands
Add a reaction that fills the camera frame with fun 3D augmented reality effects like hearts, confetti, fireworks, and more. And you can share a reaction with just a hand gesture.one
FaceTime on Apple TV
Use your iPad as a camera and start a call directly from the FaceTime app on Apple TV or hand off the call from your iPad to your TV.two
The Health app comes to iPad with a design optimized for the larger display. See rich details in favorites, review trends and highlights, and use interactive charts. And you can create medication reminders, track your menstrual cycle, and log symptoms right from iPad.
Mental health
New features for mental health let you reflect on your state of mind and view valuable insights into what might be contributing to it. Access standardized assessments often used in clinics to understand your current risk for depression and anxiety and if you’d benefit from a discussion with a healthcare provider.
Vision health
Maintain healthy viewing habits to protect your vision.
Vision health
New features can help reduce the risk of myopia in children by encouraging them to spend more time outdoors in daylight and to increase their viewing distance from iPad. Apple Watch now measures time in daylight, which parents can track in the Health app with Health Sharing.threeThe new Screen Distance feature in Screen Time uses the TrueDepth camera to encourage moving iPad farther away if it has been held closer than a foot for an extended period.four
PDFs and Notes
Fill out documents faster with AutoFill
Enhanced AutoFill allows you to securely use your saved information from Contacts to fill out a PDF or scanned document faster.five
View and interact with PDFs in Notes
Read and annotate a PDF right in your note.
View and interact with PDFs in Notes
Annotate or sketch directly on PDFs and scanned documents in your note using Apple Pencil. PDFs and document scans are presented full width in your note, making them easy to work with. Quickly flip to a page of a paper you’re reviewing or preview multiple PDFs in the same note.
Link related notes
Link related notes, like a trip itinerary and a list of recommended restaurants.
Link related notes
Quickly add links from one note to another. It’s a powerful way to connect research notes, reference a recipe, or even create wikis for your team.
Collaborate on PDFs
Get real-time updates when sharing a note with others. As you mark up a document, draw a diagram, or add a sticker, the changes you make appear live on your collaborator’s device.
Safari and Passwords
Create a profile
Keep your browsing separate for topics like Work and Personal with different profiles in Safari. Profiles help you separate your history, extensions, Tab Groups, cookies, and favorites. You can quickly switch between profiles as you browse.
Faster and more relevant search
Search in Safari is more responsive than ever and shows easier-to-read and more relevant suggestions.
Enhanced Private Browsing
Private Browsing now locks your private browsing windows when you’re not using them, completely blocks known trackers from loading on pages, and removes identifying tracking added to URLs as you browse.
Autofill verification codes received in Mail
One-time verification codes you receive in Mail are filled in automatically, so you can log in without leaving Safari.
Password and passkey sharing
Share a set of passwords with your trusted contacts.
Password and passkey sharing
Create a group and choose a set of accounts to share. Passwords stay up to date for everyone in the group, and you can remove someone at any time.
Autocorrect delivers even better support as you type. Autocorrected words are temporarily underlined so you know what’s been changed, and you can revert back to the original word with just a tap.
Use new drawing tools like a watercolor brush, fountain pen, highlighter, variable-width pen, and ruler while brainstorming. And with Shape Recognition, hand draw a shape like a square and watch a perfect version of it snap into place.
Work alongside your collaborators
See what your collaborators are working on with Follow Along. Your screen shows what they see as they move around the infinite canvas.
Stage Manager
More flexible layouts
Get more flexibility in moving and resizing windows so you can set up your workspace just the way you want it.eight
Use an external camera for FaceTime calls
Use the built-in camera in your external display for FaceTime and conference calls.nine
Spotlight
App Shortcuts in Top Hit
When you search for an app, Spotlight intelligently offers you app shortcuts to your next action within the Top Hit. So if you search for Music, you can jump right to your favorite albums.
Rich visual results
Find what you’re looking for faster with familiar app colors and icons in search results.
Siri
Siri activation
Just say “Siri.”
Siri activation
Siri now works when you just say “Siri” as well as “Hey Siri.”ten
Back-to-back requests
Siri, text Emma I’m on my wayRemind me to water the plants when I get home
Back-to-back requests
Once you activate Siri, you can issue multiple requests back to back without needing to reactivate it.eleven
AirPlay
Smart device suggestions
On-device intelligence learns your AirPlay preferences over time.
Smart device suggestions
Devices in the AirPlay list are now shown by relevance, and iPadOS can proactively suggest connections based on your preferences.
AirPlay in your hotel room
Soon, AirPlay will be available in supporting hotel rooms. Scan the QR code on your room TV and you can securely share videos, photos, and music from your iPad to the TV.
Coming in an update in 2024
AirPods
Adaptive Audio
With an entirely new listening mode for AirPods Pro (2nd generation), Adaptive Audio dynamically blends Transparency and Active Noise Cancellation to tailor the noise control experience as you move between changing environments and interactions throughout the day.twelve
Adaptive Audio
Adaptive Audio helps you focus on your favorite content or seamlessly interact with others around you while wearing AirPods Pro.
Personalized Volume uses machine learning to fine-tune your media experience based on your preferences over time and the environment around you.
If you begin speaking to someone nearby, Conversation Awareness automatically lowers any media volume, reduces background noise, and enhances the voices in front of you.
Press to mute or unmute
Quickly mute orunmuteyourself on a call.
Press to mute or unmute
Using AirPods on calls is enhanced with a new mute and unmute feature across AirPods Pro (1st and 2nd generation), AirPods (3rd generation), and AirPods Max. Press the stem — or the Digital Crown on AirPods Max — to quickly mute or unmute yourself while on a call.thirteen
Switch devices without missing a beat
Updates to Automatic Switching make moving between Apple devices with AirPods even easier, faster, and more reliable.fourteen
Privacy and Security
Communication Safety
Communication Safety now includes protections for sensitive videos and photos. And it extends beyond Messages to include content sent and received in AirDrop, the systemwide photo picker, FaceTime messages, Contact Posters in the Phone app, and third-party apps.
Sensitive Content Warning
You now have the option to blur sensitive photos and videos before you choose to view them. This feature will be available in Messages, AirDrop, Contact Posters in the Phone app, FaceTime messages, and third-party apps.
Improved permissions
Even more control over what you share.
Improved permissions
Apps can let you choose which photos to share from within the app, while keeping the rest of your Photos library private. And allow an app to add an event in Calendar without the app being able to view your other events.
Lockdown Mode
The expanded Lockdown Mode increases security to help protect against sophisticated cyber attacks. Turn it on across all your Apple devices, now including Apple Watch.
And so much more.
Accessibility.
Assistive Access distills apps and experiences to essential features to support those with cognitive disabilities. Personal Voice helps people with speech loss create a voice that sounds like them, then use it with Live Speech to communicate in calls and conversations. And Point and Speakfifteenmakes it easier for people with vision disabilities to interact with physical objects that have text labels.
AirDrop.
AirDrop transfers continue even if you step away. Content you share over AirDrop will send securely and in full quality over the internet if you leave AirDrop range and both you and your recipient are signed in to iCloud.
Find My.
Share AirTag or Find My network accessories with up to five other people. Everyone in the group can play a sound to pinpoint the location of a shared AirTag when they’re nearby.
Maps.
Save an area of a map to your iPad and explore it while offline. View information like hours and ratings on place cards and get turn-by-turn directions for driving, walking, cycling, or riding transit.
Reminders.
Grocery Lists automatically sort items into categories to make shopping easier. Change how items are grouped, and the list remembers your preferences. A new Column View organizes sections into columns across your screen, making it easy to visualize your tasks.
Music.
Collaborate on Playlists makes it easy to add, reorder, and remove songs with friends, and use emoji to react to the music.*SharePlay in the Car allows everyone to control the music and add to what’s playing — even passengers in the back seat.
Home.
Activity History lets you see who locked or unlocked the door — and when. It also shows recent activity for garage doors, contact sensors, and your security system.sixteenAnd Grid Forecast shows when a user’s electrical grid has relatively cleaner or less clean energy sources available so you can plan when to run appliances.
Photos.
The People album is better than ever at recognizing your favorite people and includes the cats and dogs that are part of your family too.
Apple ID.
Securely sign in to your iPad using a nearby device or any email address or phone number listed in your account.