While many are eagerly awaiting the announcement of iOS 19 at WWDC 25, Apple might be preparing a major shift. Reports suggest the company could skip iOS 19 entirely and jump to iOS 26, aligning with a new year-based naming system.
According to Bloomberg, Apple plans to move away from its traditional version numbering. Instead of incrementing the version each year, future updates will be named after the upcoming year so the 2025 release would be branded as iOS 26.
That’s why we’re likely to see iOS 26 instead of iOS 25 it’s a move that mirrors how car manufacturers name their new models, or how Samsung streamlined the naming of its Galaxy S series. This shift won’t just affect iOS; Apple is expected to apply the same year-based naming across all its platforms. So later this year, we could be looking at iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26, and tvOS 26.
Bloomberg reports that Apple will reveal these changes at the upcoming Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC), alongside a major visual redesign for iOS some of which has already leaked. Personally, I think this simpler, year-matching naming scheme makes a lot of sense. But what do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
