iPadOS 17 could finally bring this big iPhone feature to your iPad

iPad Mini Multitasking App Switcher
(Image credit: Future)

If Apple follows its own cadence we can expect it to announce the next big iPad software update at WWDC in June and now we've been told to expect a big change to the way the Lock Screen works.

According to that report, we can look forward to tweaks that will allow iPadOS 17 users to customize their iPad's Lock Screen in ways that simply weren't possible before.

In fact, we're told to expect the iPad to get Lock Screen feature parity with iOS 16 and then some — it's said that more changes are coming in iOS 17.

Customize all the things

This latest round of leaks comes via Twitter user @analyst941 who is thought to have also been the anonymous tipster responsible for outing the iPhone 14 Pro and its Dynamic Island in 2022. That was before we knew what the pill + hole-punch design actually meant for Apple's best iPhone.

Now, in a new post, the leaker says that we can expect the iPad to gain the same features as were already available in iOS 16. They then go a step further, adding that we can expect new features on top of the ones already offered to iPhone users when iOS 17 is announced as well. That backs up a similar leak that recently appeared on the Chinese social network Weibo.

If this all comes to fruition it will be a big change for the iPad. If so, iPadOS 17 will allow people to put widgets on their iPad Lock Screen for the first time as well as have Focus Modes automatically change the Lock Screen and vice-versa.

Apple is expected to announce iPadOS 17 on June 5, 2023, but it isn't likely to be made available to the public until in or around the middle of September. That's also when we expect Apple to release other big software updates for the iPhone, Mac, Apple Watch, and Apple TV as well.

Oliver Haslam
Contributor

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too. Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.