The Stage Manager is a highly anticipated feature on iPadOS 16. A major aspect that is letting down plenty of users is that it requires an M1 chip which is disappointing for those with older models. However, it now seems that Apple has its unique way of enabling the stage manager on older models.
Aiming all the controversy, 9to5Mac reports that Apple has an internal mode to enable the Stage Manager feature on older iPad variants.
The code refers to an internal setting that enables the Stage Manager (Chamois is its codename) for the legacy devices. In other words, the feature will work this way on iPads that don’t feature the M1 chip but are running on iPadOS 16.
It aligns with the statement of Craig Federighi. Apple’s head of software engineering states that Apple ran tests with the Stage Manager on different iPad models before concluding that it would require the M1 chip for compatibility.
He states, “We began some of our prototyping involving those systems, and it became apparent early on that we couldn’t deliver the experience that we were designing with them. Certainly, we would love to bring any new experience to every device.”
Although it doesn’t suggest that the Stage Manager feature will work smoothly on the older variants, it was excluded from the first developer’s beta of iPadOS 16.
The controversy
Although having features exclusively available for new hardware isn’t a surprise, the situation is different regarding Stage Manager, as the consumers seem skeptical about the limitations suggested by Apple.
Craig Federighi mentioned that having the virtual memory swap (M1 chip feature) was important for creating Stage Manager as the feature supports apps simultaneously. However, iPad Air 5 64 GB lacks the feature but supports Stage Manager.
Apple also suggested that features like beautiful shadows and smooth animations for the Stage Manager require more processing power and that’s why it isn’t available in Intel Macs like 2017 with macOS Ventura.
