Apple iPhone followers could quickly really feel like their dad and mom, who needed to watch their child develop up approach too quick. The newest stories recommend the tech big gained’t follow its previous naming conference. The anticipated iOS 19 will as a substitute be referred to as iOS 26 to line up with the 12 months following now. All of your Apple merchandise, out of your iPad to your Mac to your Apple Watch, will all sport the brand new nomenclature and a blanket redesign. If all goes in keeping with plan, subsequent 12 months’s replace might be named iOS 27, and so forth.
This new naming conference signifies that as a substitute of iPadOS 19, we’ll as a substitute have iPadOS 26. Reasonably than macOS 16, prepare for macOS 26. The Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional will take an unlimited leap from visionOS 2 to visionOS 26. The reported name change stems from Bloomberg tech journalist Mark Gurman’s standard slate of nameless sources. Apple’s huge plan is to attempt to unify its person interface throughout all platforms. We must always hear Apple attempt to clarify its reasoning at WWDC 2025 set for June 9.
Gurman’s newest stories recommend Apple’s subsequent UI will sport extra round bubble icons for varied apps and desktops throughout Apple’s telephones, Macs, and extra. The thought, as steered by latest stories, is to make the corporate’s total ecosystem extra cohesive for the common person. For patrons who’re already very used to the present person expertise on every of Apple’s varied product strains, the modifications may show complicated. We gained’t know the total scale of those modifications till we lastly see what Tim Prepare dinner and firm have been cooking. We’ll have to attend till the autumn (normally September) earlier than we see any trace of what this redesign means for the iPhone 17, a reportedly chunkier iPhone 17 Pro Max, and the too-light iPhone 17 Air.
The one attractive prospect to the software program revamp is that Apple may lastly create a extra Mac-like expertise for iPad. Apple’s tablets are nonetheless a few of the greatest within the trade, however they’re horrible for multitasking. The newest iPad Air and iPad Pro fashions embrace redesigned Magic Keyboards sporting a full operate row, but when Apple needs a full pc expertise, it must work up a UI that permits for extra freedom the place you possibly can place apps.
There’s a precedent for Apple’s new naming scheme. Samsung did the identical factor with its Galaxy telephones again in 2020, naming units that align with the 12 months that they’re launched. We’re now on the Galaxy S25, with the Galaxy S26 anticipated to reach this 12 months. What makes Apple’s supposed determination extra complicated is its reportedly transferring the quantity forward by one 12 months. Gurman notes that that is just like how carmakers title their vehicles—for instance, a 2025 mannequin would have 2026 in its title. It’s complicated if you happen to’re not conscious of this! It suggests the total scale of every OS replace gained’t arrive till a full six months after the corporate yearly reveals its replace plans. Apple usually launches its OS updates outdoors of beta round September.
Gurman additionally suggests we may see a brand new live-translation mode for AirPods together with Siri. As for these still-missing Apple Intelligence options, we may even see Apple open up its platform to permit extra third-party AI corporations, together with OpenAI and Anthropic, the makers of Claude. In any case, we’ll discover out extra in only a few weeks at WWDC.
