iPadOS 16 is the fourth release of iPadOS, released on October 24, 2022 — a month after iOS 16, the first time the siblings' launches split, and the delay had one cause: Stage Manager. The overlapping-window multitasking system — resizable windows in freeform groups, with full external-display support at up to four apps a side — was iPadOS's most ambitious feature ever, and its most troubled, shipping after a beta cycle of crashes, redesigns, and an M1-only restriction that ignited the loudest device-gating argument in the platform's history (Apple relented partway, extending it minus external-display support to older Pros).

Around the drama, the release carried the desktop-class apps initiative: system apps gained find-and-replace, customizable toolbars, and document menus; Weather finally arrived on iPad; and collaboration features (Freeform in 16.2, shared Safari Tab Groups) rounded out the year.

Stage Manager (M-series iPads; external display support in 16.2); desktop-class app toolbars and behaviors; the Weather app; Reference Mode on the 12.9-inch Pro's XDR display; virtual memory swap on M1; Freeform (16.2); plus the iOS 16 generation's shared features — editable Messages, iCloud Shared Photo Library, passkeys. The customizable Lock Screen notably did not come to iPad this year.

iPad (5th gen) and later, iPad mini 5 and later, iPad Air 3 and later, and iPad Pro (all except the original 9.7/12.9) — dropping the iPad Air 2, mini 4, and first-gen Pros.

Stage Manager's rocky birth became the reference case for the iPad's central tension — pro hardware, cautious software — but the windowing direction it opened proved right: iPadOS 26's acclaimed Mac-style system is its direct descendant, built on the lessons (and the criticism) this release absorbed.