Apple is brewing iPadOS 26.4 new features: Smart prompts for currently hidden windows

Apple has released a blog post today (March 10) reporting that in the iPadOS 26.4 Beta 4 update, Apple has specifically optimized the multitasking experience for heavy iPad users by adding a hidden window alert popup to help users quickly locate and recover obscured or forgotten app interfaces.

This update directly addresses the usability issues left by previous system versions. Previously, in iPadOS 26, Apple removed multitasking restrictions, allowing users to open unlimited app windows and freely resize them.

However, this high level of freedom also brought side effects, making it easy for users to lose track of some underlying hidden windows after opening many complex windows.

Regarding the operational mechanism, IT Home quotes the blog post explaining that when users click on an app with hidden windows on the desktop or dock, the system will directly display a prompt box at the corresponding location of the app icon, clearly showing “X hidden windows.”

Users can simply tap this popup to display all open windows of the app on the screen. From an interaction perspective, this feature is similar to the “multitasking window shelf” that first appeared in iPadOS 15.

It is worth noting that this alert popup has an intelligent do-not-disturb feature. Actual testing shows that the popup does not appear every time the app is opened; it is usually triggered only when the user reopens the app after a long interval. Analysts believe that Apple’s move is likely intentional, aiming to prevent users from being constantly interrupted by popups during frequent app switching.