iPadOS 26.5 will add three new features for iPad, here’s what’s coming

iPadOS 26.5 will launch very soon, and with it three new features for your iPad. Here are the new features.

#1: Automatic pairing for Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad and Magic Mouse

iPadOS 26.5 introduces a change intended to make it easier to pair Apple accessories with your iPad.

Now, when you connect a Magic Keyboard, Magic Trackpad, or Magic Mouse via USB-C, the accessory will also automatically establish a Bluetooth connection.

This means that when you unplug the USB-C cable, your iPad will maintain a wireless connection with the accessory. So there is no need for manual Bluetooth pairing.

The Mac has worked this way for years, with wired connections automatically allowing wireless pairing as well. So it’s good to see a similar feature coming to the iPad.

#2: New wallpaper with 11+ colorful variations

Apple is offering a new Pride Luminance wallpaper in iPadOS 26.5, and it includes more than just one wallpaper.

Pride Luminance offers 11 colorful wallpapers to choose from. And if that’s not enough, there’s even a custom wallpaper creation feature.

When setting up the wallpaper, you can choose to customize the colors to use. iPadOS 26.5 lets you select between 1 and up to 12 different colors for your wallpaper.

So if your iPad needs a new wallpaper, Pride Luminance offers a wide variety of choices.

#3: Reminders to Repeat Updates

I use Apple’s Reminders app on my iPad daily, and there’s a small improvement in iPadOS 26.5 that’s made it even better.

The snooze feature available when you long press a reminder alert has been updated to include specific snooze times.

Apple simply offered the option to snooze until “This Afternoon”, “Tonight”, or “Tomorrow Morning” depending on the current time of day. These were vague descriptions that I ultimately found unhelpful.

But in iPadOS 26.5, you will now see snooze options like “Call me back at 3:00 p.m.” or “Call me back tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.”

It’s a subtle change, but by removing any ambiguity, the reminder snooze options are now more useful than before.

iPadOS 26.5 Features: Recap

iPadOS 26.5 also benefits from the new “Suggested Places” feature in Apple Maps. So if you like browsing Maps on your iPad, this addition can help you find new places.

Otherwise, Apple has largely focused on iPadOS 27, which will be revealed next month with a much wider range of new iPad features.

What new features would you like to see on the iPad soon? Let us know in the comments.

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