You're sitting there, trying to answer an email, and suddenly your iPad screen is sliced in half. One side has your inbox; the other is a random Safari window you opened three days ago. It’s annoying. Multitasking on iPadOS is one of those things that feels like a superpower until you can't figure out how to make it stop. If you’ve been poking at the screen trying to figure out how to close split screen on ipad, you aren't alone. It’s a common friction point for anyone moving from a Mac or a PC to Apple's tablet ecosystem.
Apple calls this "Split View." It’s meant to make you more productive, but it often just makes the screen feel cramped, especially on an 11-inch iPad Pro or the smaller iPad Air.
The Quick Way to Kill Split View
Most people think there’s a "Close" button or an "X" somewhere. There isn't. Apple relies on gestures and a tiny controller bar at the top of the apps.
Look at the very top center of the app window you want to keep. You’ll see three small grey dots. That’s the multitasking controller. If you want to get rid of the second app and go back to a full-screen experience, you basically have two choices. You can grab that middle divider—the thick black line between the two apps—and slide it all the way to the edge of the screen.
Which edge? The one over the app you want to close.
If you want the left app to stay, grab that divider and fling it to the right. The right app will vanish into the ether (well, back to your app library). It feels a bit like throwing a window out of a moving car, but it works every time. Honestly, it's the fastest way to get your screen real estate back.
Using the Multitasking Menu
Sometimes the sliding gesture feels clunky. Maybe your screen is a bit greasy or your fingers just aren't catching the divider right.
Try this instead:
Tap those three dots at the top of the app you actually want to keep. A small menu will pop up with three icons. One looks like a full rectangle (Full Screen), one is a split rectangle (Split View), and one is a rectangle with a smaller one over it (Slide Over).
Tap the Full Screen icon.
The iPad will instantly shove the other app aside and expand the current one to fill the entire display. It’s cleaner. No sliding required. If you're using an Apple Pencil, this is usually the more precise way to handle things since the divider can be a bit finicky with the Pencil tip.
What About That Floating Window? (Slide Over)
Sometimes you aren't in Split View, but you have a tiny iPhone-shaped window floating on top of your main app. This is "Slide Over." It’s great for a quick calculator or a Slack thread, but it’s a total pain when it covers up the "Send" button on your email.
To get rid of a Slide Over window, you don't actually have to "close" it in the traditional sense. You can just hide it.
Swipe the top of that floating window toward the right edge of the screen. It’ll tuck itself away, leaving a tiny little tab that you can pull back out later if you need it. If you want it totally gone, you have to do the "three dots" dance again. Tap the dots, select the Full Screen icon, and it will convert that floating window into your primary app, effectively closing whatever was behind it.
Why Does My iPad Keep Doing This?
Apple introduced Stage Manager a couple of years ago to try and fix the "clunky" feeling of Split View. If you find your windows are constantly overlapping or hovering in weird spots, you might have Stage Manager turned on without realizing it.
Check your Control Center. Swipe down from the top-right corner of your screen. Look for the icon that looks like a large square with three small squares to the left of it. If it’s highlighted, Stage Manager is active.
Some people love it. I find it a bit chaotic on anything smaller than a 12.9-inch iPad. If you turn it off, your iPad goes back to the standard "one app at a time" or "Split View" logic. It’s worth toggling just to see which style fits your brain better.
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When the Screen Freezes
Rarely, the multitasking controller—those three dots—might stop responding. This usually happens if an app has crashed or if the iPad hasn't been restarted in a while. If you're stuck and the divider won't move, your best bet is to swipe up from the bottom of the screen to enter the App Switcher.
From there, you can see the "pair" of apps that are stuck in Split View. Swipe up on that pair to force quit both of them. When you reopen your main app, it should default back to a single-window view. It’s the "turn it off and back on again" solution for the modern era.
Summary of Actionable Steps
- Slide to Hide: Drag the center divider all the way to the right or left to instantly close one side of the split screen.
- The Three-Dot Tap: Use the multitasking menu at the top of the app and select the "Full Screen" icon to override the split.
- Slide Over Exit: Swipe floating windows to the right edge to park them out of sight.
- Stage Manager Toggle: If windows feel "messy," go to Control Center and disable Stage Manager to return to a more rigid, predictable layout.
- App Switcher Rescue: If the screen is unresponsive, swipe up to the App Switcher and flick the app pair upward to close the session entirely.
Knowing how to close split screen on ipad is basically about mastering the "flick." Once you get the muscle memory down for sliding that divider, you'll stop fighting your hardware and start actually using it. If the gestures still feel like a chore, sticking to the three-dot menu is your most reliable path to a clean, single-app screen.