No iOS 19: Apple Going Straight to iOS 26

[Innovati0n]

Car makers do that to boost sales to entice people to buy earlier without having to wait until the next year.

Unless the hardware will be following suit. iPhone 26

 

[tennisproha]

Why are people mad about this? It does make sense, and it would also make sense to name the iphone/ipad/mac by year.

With that said, it should be '25.

Seems everyone's got a hot take now. The comments everywhere are just people berating the headline

 

[MRSugarD]

Finally naming consistency across all of Apple's operating systems. Why not? I like it.

 

[iphoneMiniWanter]

I'm not sure how this will mesh with the naming for devices, which are currently kind of wacky. Like "iPad", also referred to as iPad 11th generation, or iPad A16, or iPad 2025. I suppose they could just move devices to deviceName yearOfRelease?

 

[Donkey Man]

With the design overhaul that's coming this year, Apple plans to rename all of its operating systems, reports Bloomberg. Going forward, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, watchOS, and visionOS will be identified by year, rather than by version number. We're not going to be getting iOS 19, we're getting iOS 26.

iOS 26 will be accompanied by iPadOS 26, macOS 26, tvOS 26, watchOS 26, and visionOS 26 instead of iPadOS 19, macOS 16, tvOS 19, watchOS 12, and visionOS 3.

Changing the name of the operating systems will introduce consistency across the lineup, rather than having several disparate numbers that don't match up. Apple is using vehicle-style numbering for operating systems and choosing the number of the upcoming year, so it'll be iOS 26 instead of iOS 25 because the update will be available across both 2025 and 2026.

The names will reflect a new effort by Apple to provide a more unified design across operating systems on different devices. The refreshed visionOS-like design update is coming to iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS.

Apple plans to announce the new naming scheme at the Worldwide Developers Conference that's set to begin on Monday, June 9.

Article Link: No iOS 19: Apple Going Straight to iOS 26

Just like Microsoft, then - “can’t innovate my ass!”

Apple is completely lost in the woods; it’s high time for Tim Spindler to go.

 

[russell_314]

Finally naming consistency across all of Apple's operating systems. Why not? I like it.

I think it’s absolutely hilarious that there’s 8 pages of discussion on something that has zero effect on anything

 

[ItsASpider]

Now they'll never take a year off to fix all the bugs.

Honestly expected them to call macOS 10.13 just macOS 11 to align with iOS which reached version 11 that year. The other OSes were inconsistent in this already, why did watchOS and visionOS start from 1 but iPadOS just continue from the iOS version it was based on?

 

[HazeAndHahmahneez]

Better late than never. This probably helps with customer service repair/troubleshooting issues, as well as.

Ugh. Apples so awesome…

 

[klasma]

.

 

[Yonizzle]

I hate it but I also get that it makes total sense. I hated the name “MacBook” too back in 2006 but I got used to it ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[DaveMcM76]

It’s why Microsoft likely also skipped Windows 9.

The reason I read at the time for windows skipping version 9 is that there was way too much legacy software- including stuff from Microsoft itself - that was using hardcoded wildcard “version 9*” type version checks to identify windows 95/98 vs nt onwards and an actual windows 9 version would have potentially broken these version checks in an awful lot of software.

 

[Cameront9]

Does this mean that Mac OS will no longer have a unique name?

Also, I wonder if the internal version number will also be 26. Like, windows 95 is not internally named 95.x.x.

 

[PBMB]

Is it already April Fools' Day?

 

[shenfrey]

Say what now? Lmao.

I was not expecting that! It’s so random.

But they really should do this with the iPhone, iPad, etc.

iPhone (2026), iPhone Pro (2026), and so on…

The one person that laughed at your comment was obviously a toddler.

 

[19callum93]

What, to pretend iOS 18 never happened? 😂

 

[carrrrrlos]

I’m so amazed at the amount of innovation at Apple. I mean, Naming their OS by the last two numbers by the decade, that’s brilliant, what will they think of next?

 

[tkermit]

So iOS 26.3 will come out in 2027, or will that be renamed as well?

iOS 26 Service Pack 3?

 

[Andres Cantu]

Honestly expected them to call macOS 10.13 just macOS 11 to align with iOS which reached version 11 that year. The other OSes were inconsistent in this already, why did watchOS and visionOS start from 1 but iPadOS just continue from the iOS version it was based on?

Very true. One of the things Apple is consistent on is being inconsistent.

 

[JohnC1959]

This. There's no reason for updates every SINGLE year. It's literally one of the most anti-user things they do. They just need to stop. I miss "no new features" Apple circa Snow Leopard.

Though I don't understand a major release with no new features. Go ahead and have a version that is only bug and performance fixes but make it a minor release bump.

 

[.wojtek]

Apple is using vehicle-style numbering for operating systems

WTH is "vehicle-style numbering"?

 

[xgman]

who cares what it's called. ...apparently everyone!

 

[Octavius8]

That’s the innovation limit at Apple…

 

[antiprotest]

No...no...stop...I'm rolling on the floor laughing...

 

[GioGiusi]

About time. When versioning gets this high it starts to become ridiculous and lose all meaning. Renaming it to match the year makes so much more sense. Hopefully iPhone and all other hardware products get a similar treatment.

 

[JohnC1959]

Oh no, I can just hear the confusion in naming when we roll into the year 2100.