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How to turn off iPad multitasking — Split View, Slide Over, more

Multitasking on iPad has evolved over the years, and with iPadOS 13, we saw another round of changes and new capabilities. But if you find yourself accidentally invoking features like Split View, follow along for how to turn off multitasking on your iPad.

Depending on how you use your iPad, you might prefer to have all or some of the iPadOS 13 multitasking features turned off.

On the other hand, if you’re finding you accidentally activate Split View or Slide Over on iPad every so often and want to become more confident with them, check out our in-depth video looking at all the ways to activate and use multitasking on iPad.

While multitasking is somewhat complex and not as user-friendly as it could be, MacStories recently created a neat concept for how it might be improved.

How to turn off multitasking on your iPad

  1. Head to Settings
  2. Swipe down a bit on the left-hand side and tap Home Screen & Dock
  3. Tap Multitasking
  4. Hit the toggle next to Allow Multiple Apps to turn off Split View and Slipe Over multitasking (no individual control for now)
  5. You can also opt to turn off Picture in Picture support as well as Gesture support that allows you to switch between apps with a four-finger gesture or 4/5-finger expand to open the app switcher

Another way to simplify your iPad experience is by turning off the “Suggested and Recent Apps in Dock.” That toggle is under the Home Screen & Dock settings shown in the first screenshot below.

Here’s how this looks:

Now you can choose which multitasking features you’d like to disable.

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