Teddy Svoronos, a teacher who relies on his iPad to write handouts and run presentations projected via AirPlay, says a recent change in iPadOS 27 has seriously broken a feature he depends on. He uses the iPad to control PowerPoint on his Mac, view private teaching notes, and display poll results before revealing them to students. Those tools only work if the iPad can do other things while the audience sees only the presentation.
The problem arises when multiple windows are open during AirPlay. Tapping any app other than the presenting one causes the external display to switch to showing the entire iPad screen. Students can then see private notes on who to call on, or poll results meant to stay hidden. In Good Notes the presenter view returns once the user taps back into the app, in Keynote the presentation exits entirely, and in PowerPoint the app gets stuck until the presentation is restarted.
Svoronos understands the reason for the change. In iPadOS 26, identifying which app controlled the external display was confusing, so Apple made the most recently tapped app take over. He argues this is even worse. He proposes that an app in presenter mode should keep control of the external display until the presentation ends, the document closes, or the app quits. He says the behavior persists in the latest betas and has filed a feedback report with Apple.
His conclusion is blunt: for now, he cannot recommend iPadOS 27 to anyone who uses an iPad to teach or present.
Source: Hacker News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing