My 2015 iPad Pro shouldn't still be in the rotation. It's stuck on iPadOS 16.7, it charges over Lightning, and its 32GB of storage was cramped by 2018 standards. I use it almost every day anyway, and the apps are the reason. Finding ones that still install is the hard part now. Amazon locked the Alexa app behind iOS 17 for new downloads. Google Home followed, and Google Photos now wants iOS 18. The App Store shrinks a little for old iPads every year.
These six apps haven't pulled up the ladder; they don't cost a dime, and they're why this tablet still has a real place around the house.
Plex
A free media center for the movies you already own
Plex is the first thing I'd load on any retired iPad. Install the free server program on whatever computer holds your movies and music, and the iPad app plays that whole library over home Wi-Fi without a subscription. The same app includes a large ad-supported catalog of free movies, shows, and live TV channels.
The fine print changed in 2025, though. Streaming your own library from outside the house now sits behind a paid pass, so this stopped being a travel setup. None of that touches a tablet parked on the kitchen counter, where playback stayed free along with the ad-supported channels. The app still installs on iPadOS 16, too, so a first-gen Pro gets the full at-home experience without spending anything.
Libby
Turn it into a bottomless free library
Libby connects a public library card to your library's digital shelves, and everything on them is free: ebooks, audiobooks, and full magazine issues.
I keep dedicated Kindles for novels, so on the iPad, Libby handles what e-ink does badly. A magazine spread on the 12.9-inch screen looks close to print size instead of arriving as zoomed-in slivers. Cookbook layouts survive. Big PDFs stop being a chore. Audiobooks download for offline listening, so a book keeps going out in the yard past the point where my Wi-Fi gives up.
OverDrive also deserves credit for restraint. The app's requirement still sits at iOS 10, which might be the most generous minimum of any major app in 2026, and it means Libby runs on iPads far older and slower than mine.
Spotify
A dedicated music screen for any room
Spotify bumped its requirement to iPadOS 16.1, which a first-gen Pro clears by a few decimal points. The free tier comes with ads and a heavy lean toward shuffle.
On a phone, that gets annoying fast. On a tablet that's essentially kitchen furniture, background music is the whole assignment, so the limitations barely register.
Spotify Connect is what earns the download, though. Open the app while music plays on an Echo or a Bluetooth speaker nearby and the iPad turns into a big glass remote, showing the queue and steering playback while the speaker does the actual work. Apple Music installs on old iPads even more readily, but the subscription behind it costs real money every month, which misses the point here.
Mela
A splatter-proof recipe companion
My old iPad Pro turned into a kitchen fixture at my house years ago, parked where I can read it from the stove. A recipe in a browser tab works right up until the screen locks, and you're scrolling with wet hands to find your place.
Mela is the free fix. Paste a link and the app keeps only the recipe itself, ingredients and steps laid out on one clean screen with every ad stripped away. Scaling a batch for a different headcount takes one tap. A built-in planner sorts the week's dinners from the same library.
It needs iPadOS 15 or newer, well within reach of a first-gen Pro, and the core app costs nothing. Spills stopped mattering on this tablet a long time ago, which is exactly why it lives next to the stove and my newer one doesn't.
YouTube
An always-on screen for how-tos and background video
YouTube might be the strongest single argument for keeping an old iPad around. Mine has stood next to the stove, spent mornings on the basement floor during workouts, and run cartoons for two kids through a Northern Indiana ice storm that wrecked a weekend's plans.
Repair videos get the most use. Halfway into a fix, with greasy hands and no memory of the next step, a 12.9-inch screen propped on the workbench beats a phone every time. The app still installs on iPadOS 16, and youtube.com in Safari picks up anything the app ever refuses to do.
There's also the freedom factor. I quit protecting this tablet years ago, so it goes wherever it's needed and nobody flinches when the kids grab it.
Home Assistant
A free smart home wall panel
A smart home dashboard is the job my old iPad does best. Naturally, it's also where iPadOS 16 hits the hardest wall. Amazon moved the Alexa app to iOS 17, and Google Home wants iPadOS 17.4. A first-gen Pro can't download either one anymore, and the Alexa control panel on mine survives only because I installed it before Amazon raised the floor.
Home Assistant sidesteps the whole mess by skipping the App Store. The dashboard is a web page served from your own network, and Safari doesn't care how old the iPad loading it happens to be. Save that page to the Home Screen and the tablet becomes a wall panel with cameras, locks, thermostats, and lights in one view, regardless of brand.
The setup asks more of you than anything else here. In exchange, no company can revoke it with a version bump.
Home Assistant Companion
- OS
- iOS, Android
- Price model
- Free & Open-Source
Give the old iPad a job before you give it up
The whole list costs nothing to try, and every pick still clears the version wall that keeps closing in on old iPads. That combination gets rarer each year, which is a decent argument for setting the tablet up now instead of someday. Start with one job. Put the iPad where that job actually happens, whether that's the counter, the workbench, or the basement floor. More uses tend to accumulate once it's out of the drawer. And if none of these six fill a gap at your house, there are plenty of other ways to repurpose an old tablet worth a look.