Apple to Rename iOS Using Release Year, Starting with iOS 26
iOS 19 will now be called iOS 26.
Ahead of what is rumored to be its largest software redesign in recent times, Apple is looking to rename all of its operating systems, merely as part of adopting a new “year-based” convention. Now, instead of incrementing the version number, the company will label them by release year.
In a new report, Mark Gurman has stated that Apple will be streamlining its approach to naming its operating systems. The company will be adopting a year-based naming strategy not just for iOS, but across its entire OS lineup. For instance, visionOS 3 and watchOS 12 are expected to be renamed to visionOS 26 and watchOS 26, respectively.
This change has also been corroborated by AppleInsider’s Marko Zivkovic, who claims that internal versions of iOS’s next update are labeled “iOS 16” in some places and “iOS 26” in others. With this new strategy, not only does Apple aim to make its entire software lineup less confusing, but also to bring consistency to its branding.
At the moment, the entire lineup is somewhat inconsistent. That is because Apple starts each operating system at version 1 and increases the number with every major update. So, while iOS and macOS have reached version 19, newer systems like visionOS are only at version 3.
The expected list of changes are as follows:
- iOS 19 -> iOS 26
- visionOS 3 -> visionOS 26
- macOS 19 -> macOS 26
- tvOS 19 -> tvOS 26
- iPadOS 19 -> iPadOS 26
- watchOS 12 -> watchOS 26
It is expected that this change will be announced at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), which starts next month, on June 9.
This is all we know for now, but rest assured that we will keep you updated as new information becomes available.
