iPadOS 26 Runs Smoothly on iPhone 17 Pro Max — But There’s a Catch

Developer manages to run iPadOS 26 on iPhone 17 Pro Max, offering a glimpse of desktop-style multitasking in a phone-sized form factor. This hack, devised by a Reddit user with the nickname TechExpert2910, presents a photo showcasing the brand-new floating window system of iPadOS 26 on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. Apps open in resizable windows, and the macOS-style menu bar is positioned right at the top, as if it was meant to be there.

User X Duy Tran also shared a demonstration video, showing what iPad OS 26 looks like on the 17 Pro Max. Surprisingly, it all works much smoother than one might expect from a smartphone.

Although the aspect ratio and smaller screen size of the iPhone aren’t ideal for iPad OS, it can be connected to an external monitor to achieve an experience akin to desktop computing without a Mac or PC. That’s the essence of this modification. But before anyone thinks about turning their iPhone into a mini-iPad, there’s a catch: Tran mentions that the installation required an exploit that Apple has already patched in iOS/iPadOS 26.2. However, video recordings show one thing: these window multitasking tools already work seamlessly on modern iPhones.