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Apple Will Reportedly Rename Upcoming iOS 19 to iOS 26

By / Tech / May 31, 2025

Apple is reportedly renaming iOS and its other operating systems to have a unified naming scheme that is easy to understand.

Picture of the Apple iOS 18 user interface
The Apple iOS 18 user interface (Image via Apple)

Apple numbers the versions of the iOS operating system depending on their age. For example, iOS is almost 18 years old, and the latest iOS version is iOS 18. However, this versioning scheme is not followed by its other operating systems, such as WatchOS, VisionOS, iPadOS, macOS, and more.

This can lead to some confusion about its different operating systems, and it appears Apple wants to change that. The Cupertino giant reportedly wants to use a unified versioning scheme that all its operating systems will follow.

According to a new report from Bloomberg’s analyst Mark Gurman, Apple is adopting this new versioning scheme to provide better brand consistency and make it less confusing to its users and developers. In this article, we will discuss what this change could mean and explain when you will see this change.

New Report Suggests iOS and Apple’s Other OSes Will Get a New Naming Scheme

Picture of Apple iOS 18 features
Apple iOS 18 features (Image via Apple)

The report of Apple renaming the versioning scheme of iOS and Apple’s Other OSes comes directly from Mark Gurman at Bloomberg, who has a great history of providing accurate leaks before they happen. In fact, Mark previously revealed many details about the redesigned UI of iOS 19, so there’s little to doubt this.

According to Mark, Apple will reportedly name the versioning scheme of iOS from 19 to 26 for its future iOS update. This will also be true for all other Apple operating systems.

According to this information, the upcoming releases of Apple’s operating system will be changed from:

  • iOS 19 to iOS 26
  • iPadOS 19 to iPadOS 26
  • watchOS 12 to watchOS 26
  • macOS 16 to macOS 26
  • tvOS 19 to tvOS 26
  • visionOS 3 to visionOS 26

Since the above operating systems are expected to release close to 2026, Apple chose the number 26 as a unified version number for all its operating systems.

When Will the New Updated Apple Operating System Release?

Apple is expected to reveal this new version number system for its operating system at the upcoming WWDC 2025 event. This event is usually followed by beta releases and then a stable release in September 2025, so expect the same this year. Therefore, you should see iOS 26 along with others sometime in the month of September 2025 or later.

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