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'Apple ID' Renamed to 'Apple Account' Across iOS 18 and Other Updates
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The transition will be completed until the last user knows about this and uses it.
90+% of the user base has no idea about this… and earlier today there was a story about ios17 adoption rate which I believe was around 77%…
IIRC, Apple's suite of internet services went from iTools to .Mac to MobileMe to iCloud, with one or more accounts for purchases, iCloud storage, and so on. I had all of them and still retain the emails welcoming me to each one, as well as the notices when they were retired.
It's gotten increasingly confusing over the years, especially for those of us who set up a separate account for iTunes back in the day. Email can be particularly bewildering — I can be reached at xxx@mac.com, xxx@me.com, or xxx@icloud.com. I prefer the mac.com address, but Mail.app on macOS sometimes defaults to sending from one of the other two.
Although I think changing to Apple Account will be a step forward, if Apple really wanted to do it right by us they'd also let us merge accounts and decide on one Apple email address to use.
It's gotten increasingly confusing over the years, especially for those of us who set up a separate account for iTunes back in the day. Email can be particularly bewildering — I can be reached at xxx@mac.com, xxx@me.com, or xxx@icloud.com. I prefer the mac.com address, but Mail.app on macOS sometimes defaults to sending from one of the other two.
Although I think changing to Apple Account will be a step forward, if Apple really wanted to do it right by us they'd also let us merge accounts and decide on one Apple email address to use.
It’s all bland and boring now, kind of reflects the innovations at the company rn. I bet if they created a browser in this era they’ll call it the Apple Browser, Apple Phone, Apple Music (instead of iTunes...), Apple Messages, Apple Video Calls (FaceTime), etc
I just wish Apple ID didn't treat me like I stole my own phone every time I needed to sign out or travel anywhere.
ok, but can I now merge ID’s together? I really want to get rid of my @gmail.com Apple ID but can’t because I have an @icloud already associated to it with my old last name. I got married a few years back and would like to have an @icloud with my correct last name dang it lol.
And getting an all-new Apple Account for this doesn’t work when I have the Apple Card, all of my purchase history (15+ years) and Apple iPhone Upgrade program attached to this Apple Account.
And getting an all-new Apple Account for this doesn’t work when I have the Apple Card, all of my purchase history (15+ years) and Apple iPhone Upgrade program attached to this Apple Account.
People got very upset when this rumor did the rounds and I said this sounds like a good place to manage all of your credit cards and pay later debt so I will refrain from doing that here.
You would have thought by now SOMEONE would have figured this out.
A distinction without a difference. A solution without a problem.
"What's in a name? An ID by any other name would work the same, and if Apple ID were not, still it would." Apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.
"An ID is an ID is an ID." Apologies to Gertrude Stein
"What's in a name? An ID by any other name would work the same, and if Apple ID were not, still it would." Apologies to Wm. Shakespeare.
"An ID is an ID is an ID." Apologies to Gertrude Stein
I’m hopeful for the name change. Personally I don’t care. But lots of people who are more casual users think Apple ID isn’t something important to remember. I feel like Account does a bit of a better job of letting people know that this is something important to remember, keep track of etc. And yeah there are lots of people who lock themselves out of their account not realizing it won’t be easy to get back in if you forget everything and lose track of everything.
Finally - I'm fed up with trying to frantically wave my favourite Golden Delicious in front of the camera when it tells me to unlock with my AppleID.
I know, groan-worthy joke.
I know, groan-worthy joke.
Plus "Apple Account" takes longer to type since it has more letters. At least, they did not increase the syllable count. Can you image if they went with something that took longer to say? 😬
And as A legacy owner of a mac.com ID for my iTunes purchases, I no longer get receipts for purchases as the address is dead. The additional valid me.com addy doesn't take over to send the receipt. Just the feeling of having to call and explain, I keep postponing....
Apple Account does not make sense, unless they now force customers to create a new loginID using their own email extension, else it will be confusing.
1. An account is an account only when it’s a service, but not everyone who has an active AppleID use Apple’s cloud services.
2. When people say Google Account they really mean the entire Google services account. Microsoft Account means the email or application downloads.
When people now say Apple Account, it now means the Login ID. Not the iCloud services, or Apple One subscription nor iTunes.
3. People often use their own email account names as the AppleID (eg. gmail etc) not the free icloud.com. Calling the login ID and “account” when the naming extension ends with another company’s email is going to add confusion to a lot of non-tech savvy users and cost Apple a lot of man-hours and their own advisors a lot of headache.
Expert: “Can I have your Apple Account please?”
Clueless: “No I don’t have an Apple account. I use gmail. Do you want my gmail?”.
Expert: “No Mdm. I do not mean Gmail. Everyone has an Apple Account. The Apple Account is used to activate your iPhone”.
Clueless: “Oh! I used my gmail to activate”.
Expert: “Yes then I would need your Gmail”.
Clueless: “You said you didn’t want my Gmail just now?”
You all get the drift.
4. Apple is renaming it to unify their branding since all their ecosystem depends on it, and the big factor is also that they probably want to start driving more customers to use their cloud and streaming services.
The push towards future computing will hopefully be powered by what we see in movies where AI can be as intelligent but more capable than a human in task organisation, locked by one single Apple account.
1. An account is an account only when it’s a service, but not everyone who has an active AppleID use Apple’s cloud services.
2. When people say Google Account they really mean the entire Google services account. Microsoft Account means the email or application downloads.
When people now say Apple Account, it now means the Login ID. Not the iCloud services, or Apple One subscription nor iTunes.
3. People often use their own email account names as the AppleID (eg. gmail etc) not the free icloud.com. Calling the login ID and “account” when the naming extension ends with another company’s email is going to add confusion to a lot of non-tech savvy users and cost Apple a lot of man-hours and their own advisors a lot of headache.
Expert: “Can I have your Apple Account please?”
Clueless: “No I don’t have an Apple account. I use gmail. Do you want my gmail?”.
Expert: “No Mdm. I do not mean Gmail. Everyone has an Apple Account. The Apple Account is used to activate your iPhone”.
Clueless: “Oh! I used my gmail to activate”.
Expert: “Yes then I would need your Gmail”.
Clueless: “You said you didn’t want my Gmail just now?”
You all get the drift.
4. Apple is renaming it to unify their branding since all their ecosystem depends on it, and the big factor is also that they probably want to start driving more customers to use their cloud and streaming services.
The push towards future computing will hopefully be powered by what we see in movies where AI can be as intelligent but more capable than a human in task organisation, locked by one single Apple account.
Maybe they are just waiting for all of us to just die off? PROBLEM SOLVED!
The merging thing needs an honest to goodness ‘moment’. It’s bewildering they haven’t fixed this yet. Adding AppleCare to any of my products somehow always needs to be done by a phone call to a second tier service rep because of it. It’s so frustrating having to log in twice. It’s just insane they haven’t fixed this.
I wrote to Tim@apple.com today regarding this, and I highly encourage everyone else affected by this to write to him as well. Let's work to create momentum on this issue. It seems to be the perfect time given the related changes we're seeing.
It's not going to get any easier for them to build out the migration. From my non-technical perspective, it seems quite doable on a surface level for media purchases only. i.e. Not to combine two Apple IDs that BOTH have iCloud, but rather limit it to taking all of the media purchases for the one Apple ID and moving them over to the other iCloud Apple ID in a ONE TIME migration. The old account either disappears at that point or exists without the purchased content and can be closed by the user.
