40 ipados settings

9 min read

YOU NEED TO TURN ON NOW!

Whether you have just purchased an iPad or are an experienced user, the operating system that powers it, iPadOS 16, hides many secrets that aren’t initially obvious. Many are buried within the Settings app on your iPad, often in places you wouldn’t expect, so it’s always good to familiarise yourself with the various options available and turn them on if they can enhance the way you use and interact with your device. Here we have compiled 40 of the most essential settings for iPadOS that you need to turn on/off straight away. Note that we are using iPadOS 16 here, so if you haven’t upgraded to the latest version then you may find that some settings are called other things in the version you have running on your iPad.

To upgrade to the latest version of iPadOS head to the Settings app then choose General>Software Update and if there’s an update available for your system it will tell you here. Just tap on Download and Install to install it, but make sure you are connected to power.

01 Set up Shake to Undo

Go to Settings> Accessibility>Touch and tap on ‘Shake to Undo’. Now you will be able to simply shake your iPad to undo something you’ve just done. This can be really useful when typing in the Messages app and you realise you’ve made a mistake or Auto-Correction has annoyingly tried to predict a word wrongly.

02 Prevent Lock to End Call

When taking a call on your iPhone, you can press the Sleep/Wake side button to end the call. If you find yourself doing this by accident while on a call, then you can turn off this feature by going to Accessibility>Touch and turning on the ‘Prevent Lock to End Call’ option. Now you won’t be cutting calls short.

03 Route your audio calls

When you make FaceTime calls on your iPad it can sometimes be a bit annoying working out where the audio is going - is it to your headset or the iPad’s speaker? In Accessibility>Call Audio Rooting you can specify exactly where the audio will go. By default it is set to Automatic, which means, whatever you are currently using.

04 Require your attention

If your iPad has FaceID, you should go to Settings> Accessibility>Face ID & Attention and turn on ‘Require Attention for Face ID’. This means that you have to actually be looking at your iPhone to unlock it. You should also enable ‘Attention-Aware Features’ so that your iPhone will only dim if you aren’t looking at it.

05 Harden up your Dock

Head to Settings>Accessibility>Per-App Settings>Home Screen (you may need to tap Add App and select Home Screen first) and if you turn on the ‘Reduce Transparency’ option in the Display & Text Size section, you will stop your Home Screen Dock and other ^{05 backgrounds}being transparent.