What Apps Come with the iPad?

Evan Gower August 8, 2019

Regardless of the model, your iPad comes with more than forty pre-installed apps. This may sound as too many, but most of those apps are designed to make your life easier and improve productivity.

And if you’re allowed to uninstall or hide some of those apps. Let’s have a look at some of the pre-installed apps and their functions.

Dock Apps

By default, there are four apps in the iPad dock and up to 15 on the iPad Pro (18 with the iOS 13 Beta). There’s also a separate section for recently used apps. Here’s a rundown of the four apps.

Safari – The default iOS browser, Safari received a major facelift a few years ago. Among the features, you’ll likely appreciate Reader View the most.
Music – This app is where your music resides. It also integrates with iTunes and you can use Home Sharing to play music without syncing.
Messages – This is where you send free iMessages to other Apple devices. You can also share media as well as payments via Apple Pay.
Mail – This email client supports all mainstream services like AOL, Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo. The best thing about Mail is the intuitive and easy-to-use interface.

Home Screen Apps

You may not find all home screen apps on one page. Swipe left to reach some of them and feel free to uninstall or put in a folder the ones that you don’t need.

Photos – This app needs little introduction. It makes browsing photos easy by organizing them by location, type, people, and more. There’s also a slideshow feature.
Clock – The Clock app has everything time-related and integrates well with Siri. For example, Bedtime keeps track of your sleeping patterns.
Notes – With automatic syncing across all your Apple devices and formatting features, Notes is a powerful tool. The only downside is that you can’t export notes as a text document.
Files – A much-needed addition to iPads and iPhones, Files is a document management tool. It works with iCloud and Dropbox and supports drag and drop.
Home – This is Apple‘s response to the internet of things. The app connects to smart devices and tracks their performance, as long as they’re iOS-compatible.
FaceTime – Originally an iPhone app, FaceTime can be a great productivity tool. It works best on 4G and Wi-Fi and just as well on an iPad.
Camera – New iPads feature dual cameras, though they’re not known for camera performance. The app works as you’d expect a stock camera app.
Maps – Although many iPhone owners prefer Google Maps, Maps is a decent option if you’d rather download anything else.
Reminders – This app is both a to-do list and a reminder. It resembles Notes and you can ask Siri to set reminders.
App Store – You won’t be able to keep your apps updated without App Store. But did you know that you can make it disappear? Check out our article on how to do it for both the iPhone and the iPad.
iTunes Store – This one is the same as the one on a Mac or PC. It’s an all-in-one multimedia center for downloading and playing music and videos.
Find iPhone – Of course, in this instance it’d actually be finding your iPad.
Settings – This is where you go to change all settings related to the iPad. You also use it to control other installed apps.
Calendar – Aside from a calendar, this app can help you manage events and your schedule. It works with iMessage and Mail and you can add events in one click.
News – News has undergone a few updates since its introduction. Locational headline news titles also appear in a widget and you are allowed to customize the feed.

Optional Apps

The Apple iLife and iWork suites come pre-installed on iPads that have bigger storage. If they are not on your iPad by default, you can always get them on the App Store for free.

iWork – This suite includes Pages, Numbers, and Keynote, which are the equivalent of Microsoft’s Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. The documents are stored on iCloud.
iMovie – Simple yet effective, iMovie is a user-friendly video editing app that comes with ready-made templates for creating trailers and more.
Garage Band – Apple’s music production app is a great tool for creating your own tunes. It has a great selection of virtual instruments and production features.