iPadOS multitasking has received a significant makeover from that to which you may be accustomed in iPadOS 18.x and earlier - and may take a little time to learn and adjust your workflows. You would be well advised to review the official iPadOS User Guide and the many available online tutorials (such as YouTube) to become better acquainted with the new multitasking interface and associated gestures and controls.
Work with multiple windows at once on iPad - Apple Support
OS - iPadOS 26 - Apple
The three dot button to control multitasking is still present - but is visually now a traffic-light button. Once understood, controlling App windows using the button is straightforward - and using it will become second nature as you become accustomed to this revised control.
The button location has changed. Instead of being top-centre of the App window (a location which frequently conflicted with controls for many third-party Apps - of which regular complaint was seen here), the button is now at top-left of App windows that are not being viewed in full screen mode.
For Apps that are being viewed in full screen mode, a simple downward swipe from the top-edge of the screen reveals the new menu bar - where the button is located at the left.
While the previous Slide Over view has been temporarily removed, Split View remains - although it is accessed differently. You can have two or three App windows side-by-side - or a spit the screen into four quadrants.
To access, assuming that the current App window is not maximised; touch-and-hold the traffic-light icon at top-left of the App window to expose the Fill & Arrange options:
The current App window will move aside, allowing you to open another App; the selected view will open the selected Apps in their own windows - which can be resized laterally, as before, by dragging the divider to left or right.
If the App window is already maximised, swipe downwards from the top-edge of the screen to expose the new menu bar - then use the traffic-light icon as described above.
For iPadOS 26, you have a configuration choice to use Full Screen Apps only, use Windowed Apps, or Stage Manager mode as you prefer:
Settings > Multitasking & Gestures - select your preferred multitasking mode
Mail Search also remains; the search dialogue has moved to top-right of the Mail App window. When entering text to search, as before you can choose to search by Sender, Subject, Attachment or more generally - a list of potential searches being offered in a list that appears as you type.
Apple invites constructive feedback, comments and feature requests via their product feedback pages. For iPad and iPadOS:
Feedback - iPad - Apple
