Apple Just Time Traveled Its OS Versions to 2026 \ stacker news ~tech

Apple is reportedly planning a big shift in how it names its operating systems, according to a Bloomberg report Starting with this year’s WWDC, Apple will align OS version names with the following calendar year not the current one.

So instead of launching iOS 19 this year, they’ll jump to iOS 26 and the same will go for macOS, watchOS, iPadOS, visionOS, and tvOS.

Example of the shift:

✓iOS 18 → iOS 26 ✓macOS 15 → macOS 26 ✓visionOS 2 → visionOS 26

This is supposedly to clean up the current version number chaos across platforms (e.g., iOS 18 vs. watchOS 12 vs. visionOS 2) and make things easier to track going forward kind of like car models that are released ahead of their model year.

WWDC kicks off June 9, and Apple is expected to confirm the change in the keynote. There’s also buzz about a major UI redesign across Apple platforms inspired by visionOS. Think more spatial UI, transparency effects, and consistency across devices.

Discussion Questions:

•Is this a smart branding move, or will it just confuse users even more? •How do you feel about Apple “skipping ahead” in version numbers? •Do consistent version numbers across OSes actually matter to users or devs? •Could this open the door for annual “yearly” OS editions like Windows used to try?

0 sats \ 1 reply \ @ek 31 May

So if they don't ship a new major version each year, there will be gaps?

0 sats \ 0 replies \ @wolfsbane OP 31 May

Yes, if Apple adopts this new calendar based versioning system where the OS version number matches the following calendar year then skipping a yearly major release would create a visible gap in the version sequence.