Apple May Unveil iOS 26 at WWDC 2025 Instead of iOS 19; Said to Adopt Year-Based Naming Strategy

WWDC 2025 will kick off in June and has been rumoured to be a stage the place Apple would possibly unveil iOS 19, its newest OS replace for the iPhone, together with extra firmware iterations for its units. However, a current report signifies that iOS 19 could not arrive at all. While the corporate will certainly preview the upcoming iOS firmware, it’s stated to be not often known as iOS 19 at all. The report means that Apple might be altering its naming conference (or nomenclature) technique for iOS.

Apple to Preview iOS 26 Instead of iOS 19

It has been recognized for a while that Apple may make some large modifications this yr when it comes to its working methods. But whereas this was beforehand thought to be relevant to the core design or performance, the change could start from the nomenclature itself. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman experiences that the Cupertino-based tech big may transfer away from an iteration-based technique in direction of an year-based one when it comes to the naming of its OS updates.

This doubtlessly means OS updates will reportedly be recognized by the yr it’s launched as an alternative of a model quantity, the journalist stated, citing nameless sources acquainted with the plans. Hence, iOS 19 is anticipated to be referred to as iOS 26, iPadOS 19 might be iPadOS 26, macOS 16 could possibly be macOS 26, and so forth and so forth. The firm is reported to use the upcoming yr as an alternative of the present one whereas naming its firmware variations.

The following replacements of Apple’s updates are possible to be previewed at WWDC 2025:

Notably, Apple’s OS updates are accompanied by completely different variations as they didn’t launch at the identical time. Thus, iOS 18 is the most recent replace for the iPhone whereas macOS 15 ships with all Mac units. Meanwhile, the just lately launched Apple Vision Pro runs on the visionOS 2 firmware. Thus, Apple is claimed to be making this modification to convey “consistency to its branding” and to get rid of a naming method that could possibly be complicated to prospects and builders alike.

This change, together with all of the options, is anticipated to be previewed at the WWDC 2025 keynote which takes place on June 9.