iPadOS 17 Announced with Customizable Lock Screen, Interactive Widgets, etc

Apple has announced iPadOS 17 for iPad.

The upcoming major system software release for iPad includes a customizable lock screen similar to what is already available on iPhone, a new Profiles feature for Safari, interactive widgets on the iPad Home Screen, new Messages features, the inclusion of the Health app on iPad, new window placement options in Stage Manager, enhancements to Spotlight search, and more.

The customizable lock screen for iPad allows users to change the typography of the clock, and add various widgets to the side of the locked iPad display.

With the Home Screen widgets now being interactive, you can do things like check items off a to-do list, or start playing music, directly from the iPad Home Screen, and without having to open those apps first.

New Messages features include new Live Stickers feature, improved search, and a swipe-to-reply feature for inline message replies.

The Profiles feature in Safari allows you to setup different Safari environments for things like “Work” or “School” or “Secret Project”, and have specific cookies, history, and tabs for those individual profile environments.

The Health app arrives on the iPad as well, allowing you to see all of your health stats gathered from an iPhone or Apple Watch, but on the larger iPad display.

iPadOS 17 will be available on iPad 6th gen and newer, iPad Mini 5th gen and newer, iPad Air 3rd gen and newer, iPad Pro 12.9″ 2nd gen or newer, iPad Pro 11″ 1st gen and newer, and the 10.5″ iPad Pro.

iPadOS 17 is available as a beta now for developers, as a public beta in July, and will be released for all iPad users in the fall as a free software update.