Apple set to announce iOS 26 instead of iOS 19 as major overhaul leaves users baffled
Apple is set to announce iOS 26, leaving iPhone users confused ahead of WWDC.
Apple was famously late to jump on the artificial intelligence bandwagon. At last year’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), the company introduced 'Apple Intelligence,' a suite of AI-powered features limited to newer iPhone 15 Pro models and beyond. But despite the hype, things didn't really go as planned.
So, any major announcements at the upcoming conference isn't likely to lower the scepticism among the Apple community.
Meanwhile, users have been taking advantage of the many features rolled out in iOS 18.5, including underrated flight tracking features, redesigned apps and more customisation.
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Now, it appears the tech giant is undertaking a complete redesign with iOS 19.
According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to reset its software version naming system completely. Instead of iOS 19, the next update users receive will be iOS 26, as part of a new year-based naming strategy.
As such, 9to5Mac expects Apple to announce the following new software versions:
- iOS 26 (instead of iOS 19)
- macOS 26 (instead of macOS 16)
- iPadOS 26 (instead of iPadOS 19)
- watchOS 26 (instead of watchOS 12)
- tvOS 26 (instead of tvOS 19)
- visionOS 26 (instead visionOS 3)
The reason is that Apple wants to 'bring consistency to its branding and move away from an approach that can be confusing to customers and developers,' Bloomberg explained.
In other words, this move seems like one of many that allow Apple to streamline all of its platforms into one unified identity.
The good news is it might make the numbers easier to remember when it's just tied to the year. And it seems iPhone fans look forward to the change and were 'waiting for this.'
"you know what? this is not such a bad idea," one X user wrote while someone else admitted: "I actually like this a lot…"
Even Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk weighed in with a somewhat practical question.
"What happens in the year 2100?" posted the world's richest man, responding to a post on X about the iOS change.
It's a fair question... if Apple is still around at that point. A lot of people turned to X's Grok for an answer, while others joked: "We will all be using X phones by then."
Other users imagined a dystopian future like: "Phones no longer fit in your pocket they live in your mind," and "Everyone will use Neuralink by then and Apple will be in the rearview mirror."