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Apple introduced Stage Manager for macOS Ventura and iPadOS 16, bringing a new way to multitask on certain iPads and Macs. By tapping the thumbnails on the left side of the screen, you can easily switch between apps on your Mac, making multitasking more efficient. Let’s focus on how Stage Manager works on both Mac and iPad.
When you update your Mac to macOS Ventura, you can quickly enable Stage Manager from the Control Center. It’s a new multitasking feature that complements the Dock and Mission Control, or it can even replace them if you prefer. Once activated, Stage Manager moves your recently opened apps to the left side of the screen as thumbnails. Depending on the size of your Mac, you can have up to six thumbnails displayed—on a smaller MacBook, for example, only four might fit. These thumbnails can represent single apps, groups of different apps, or all open windows of a single app. You can choose to open one window at a time or view all windows of a group or app together.
For instance, if you have five different Pages documents open, you can quickly see all of them or focus on just one. You can work on notes in Noteful and Keynote simultaneously, accessing them together, and even add a Pages window to this group for easy multitasking. The windows are perfectly sized for multitasking, so all you need to do is arrange them on your screen. Resizing windows on a Mac has always been tricky, but Stage Manager simplifies switching between apps.
You can customize Stage Manager based on how minimalist you want your setup to be. For a cleaner look, you can hide Desktop items so they’re only visible when you click on an empty space on your desktop. You can also hide the recent apps on the left side, making them appear only when you hover your mouse over that area. It would be great if, in the future, Apple allows us to choose which side of the screen the thumbnails appear on. For right-handed users, it might feel more natural to have them on the right. Personally, I prefer seeing one window at a time and switching between them.
If you’re not into minimalism, you can keep your thumbnails and desktop apps always visible, making everything easier to access. Instead of viewing one app at a time, you can choose to see all the windows of a single app at once. Which approach do you prefer—minimalist or maximalist?
On iPadOS 16, Stage Manager is available on certain newer iPad models. However, if your iPad doesn’t support Stage Manager, you’re not missing out on much. Stage Manager feels unnecessary on the iPad, mainly due to the smaller screen size and the fact that it’s a touch device. Multiple Instances is a far better multitasking tool for the iPad. Slide Over also makes more sense on an iPad than Stage Manager, and thankfully, you have the option to turn Stage Manager off entirely. If you’ve found Stage Manager useful on the iPad, let us know—maybe we’re missing something.
Stage Manager allows you to open two or more apps and access them one at a time, requiring you to keep switching between them. But why do that when Multiple Instances lets you open two apps and use them simultaneously? Although Stage Manager lets you resize your windows, this wasn’t really a limitation before. Plus, trying to view both apps at once in Stage Manager often looks awkward. Multiple Instances resizes apps much better and more intuitively.
The one advantage of Stage Manager on the iPad is that it lets you switch between apps quickly. However, bringing up the App Switcher with a simple swipe is already easy enough. The app switcher within Stage Manager isn’t great either. At least with Multiple Instances, you can move apps around and create new Split Views.
Overall, Stage Manager on the iPad feels impractical for a touchscreen device, though it could be laying the groundwork for future multitasking improvements. Until those arrive, I’m turning this feature off. On the Mac, however, Stage Manager has genuinely improved multitasking, and we’re loving it.
