theONE on iPad — what is different, and what is not
Same app, same data, one screen bigger. Here is what changes on an iPad, and the one thing an iPad genuinely cannot do that an iPhone can.
theONE is one app that runs on both iPhone and iPad, from the same records, and there is no separate iPad version — install it and start. Whether the two devices show the SAME vessel is up to you: sign in on the iPad and link it to the boat and they do; leave it signed out and it is its own local vessel, with nothing travelling between them.
The layout adapts, the app does not change. It follows the width of the window, not the device. A narrow window — any iPhone held upright, or theONE in a narrow split-screen pane — gets the tab bar along the bottom. A wide one — an iPad, or a large iPhone (a Plus or Pro Max) turned on its side — gets a sidebar down the left instead, always visible, with the same five rows — Mission Control, Playbook, Chart, Maintenance, Stowage — and the same badge counts, plus Log a Jot pinned at the bottom corner, which is the easiest thing to reach on a mounted iPad. Fleet is not a row on either device: tap the vessel name under the Mission Control title.
Turn an iPad landscape and a third column appears. Mission Control keeps the middle, and a live glance rail opens on the right: new foresights at the top, then Live Telemetry (tank levels, the GPS readings and the Anchor Watch chip), and Crew Aboard at the bottom, where a tap on a person opens their profile. That is the layout an iPad at a helm is meant to run in. A large iPhone on its side keeps the sidebar and Mission Control only: the rail needs an iPad's width.
The quick menu is still there, and it is shorter. With the tab bar the menu carries navigation, because the tab bar only shows five things. With the sidebar every destination is already showing, so the menu drops that list and keeps what it alone can do — Jot, your role, Calendar, Ship's Directory, Foresight, Fleet and Trace Watchlist (on Mission Control), Log Incident, Scan Document, and settings. Search is not in the menu on either device: it is the magnifier at the top of every tab.
One difference worth knowing before you need it. A Wi‑Fi + Cellular iPad has a real GNSS receiver and fixes its own position offshore with no signal — it is as good as the phone for anything position-critical, and it is the model worth having at a helm. A Wi‑Fi‑only iPad has no GPS hardware at all, no matter how good the Wi‑Fi is; anything needing a live fix falls back to the last known position or a bridge feed. Check which model yours is, and if it is Wi‑Fi‑only, keep a phone or a bridge feed aboard for position.
Steps
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Sign in, or don't — but know which
Install theONE on the iPad, then decide one thing: sign in on the iPad and attach it to your vessel, and it shows the same boat as the phone and keeps up with it. Skip that and it is a separate local vessel — fine if the iPad is a second boat's, confusing if you expected the first one's log to be on it. Settings → Preferences → Storage tells you which you have. You can also restore from a backup, or start a vessel, exactly as on a phone.
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Use it in landscape at the helm
Rotate to landscape for the three-column layout: sidebar, Mission Control, and the live glance rail. Portrait keeps the sidebar and drops the rail.
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Check which iPad you have
Wi‑Fi + Cellular iPads have GNSS and fix position on their own — no cellular plan needed, the receiver is in the hardware. Wi‑Fi‑only iPads have none. If yours is Wi‑Fi‑only, keep a phone or a connected bridge aboard for anything position-critical.
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Split screen shrinks it back
Run theONE in a narrow multitasking pane and it returns to the phone layout — tab bar, full quick menu. That is intended: the layout follows the width it is given, not the hardware.
Related
- Welcome — the 5 things to know firstIf you only read one article, read this one.
- What Mission Control is showing youDecode every band, chip, and tile on the dashboard.
- MOB (Man Overboard) — what happens when you tap itThe pin, the history, and why this is on every screen.
- Where your data lives — and the one thing that does leaveUntil you sign in, everything you enter stays on this device. Your position goes out to fetch weather, tides and charts, and to Apple to name the place you are. Here is exactly what leaves, and when.
- Where each feature lives in the tab barFive tabs at the bottom, one menu (☰) top-left. Here's exactly which door opens which feature so you don't have to hunt.