Hi everyone, Aaron here for zolotete and it looks like Apple is getting ready to bring in some massive changes at WWDC. iOS 19 was originally thought to be the name of the upcoming iOS update just like every year, but it seems Apple is changing everything. Yesterday, it was leaked that Apple will change the name of not just iOS, but of all of its operating systems from the Apple Watch to the Vision Pro. So, they’re getting ready to do this. And in a statement yesterday, it looks like Apple will be announcing its biggest software update rebrand at WWDC.
This is tied specifically to iOS and iPad and different operating system redesigns. Apple is moving from version numbers to years just like Windows did in the ’90s. The new OSS iOS 26, iPad OS 26, Mac OS 26, Vision OS 26, TV OS 26, and Watch OS 26. It looks like Apple is going to drop the iOS 19 name and completely change it to years. Now, this is according to Mark German, who has a very good track record on software. I know some of you may think otherwise,but he’s rarely wrong when it comes to software changes and updates, especially this close to WWDC. Every single year, we get some updates, and they’re usually spot-on about what to expect with WWDC and the new software. There’s been some missteps here and there with different hardware releases, but it’s rare when it comes to software. And I know many people were saying Apple was getting ready for some big changes last year, and supposedly that’s true, but Mark German never actually said that. So, some other people said that, and it looks like this year is the year of the big changes. Apple did something similar when we got the iPhone 9. iPhone 9 was expected and they switched it to iPhone 10. They rebranded it to 10 and then 10s. And of course, we’ve got all the way up to the iPhone 16 this year.
So, it looks like Apple doesn’t like the number 9 for some reason, and they’re skipping right over. And if you’re wondering why 26 and not 25, well, I have a couple thoughts on that. And the first thing is iOS 25 would release in September, giving it only 3 months of being out in the public. They want to get ahead of this and release probably in September like they normally do with iOS 26. That would be right around the time of the iPhone launch as well and maybe some other new products. And so instead, it would be iOS 26. Of course, after that, we would hopefully get iOS 26.1 with some new features all the way up to iOS 26.6 or 26.7, and they will continue the regular software updates. Now, we don’t know this 100% that that’s what they’re planning to do, but if they do make these name changes, it’s going to be a big change across everything. It will bring consistency and sort of what they’re trying to do with the OSS as well across all of their different lineups. So instead of just saying iOS 18 and then Mac OS 15, it would be less confusing as it’s all just for 2026 then 2027 and so on. However, Vision OS is going to jump a ton of versions if that’s true from Vision OS 2 right to Vision OS 26. So, I don’t know if this is a great move and I’m not really sure what I think about it yet, but we’ll have to wait and see what happens, whether it’s 2026 or just iOS 26. Now, of course, this year we do expect more features and changes, but probably not as many as we thought originally. I’ve talked about this the other day as well, but there’s a few different things that have come out as far as some big changes. So, more stability, less changes, but more solid changes and bigger updates. This update is supposedly named Solarium internally and
That means a glassy look with a full redesign similar to how we have some translucency here on the control center. We’ll have that throughout with a little bit more depth it seems. So maybe we’ll get some icon redesigns. We’ve talked about that in the past. We could have some circular icons or maybe just a different corner radius. However, it’s hard to say if Apple will do this 100%. But we do expect a full redesign and what that actually means, we don’t know. But Mark German has said it will be such a big design that ‘s really aimed at people of this generation. So, it’s a new way to interact with your overall device. On certain podcasts, he’s talked about that and it looks like that’s what Apple’s aiming for. Of course, not only will we have it on this device, but it looks like Apple is making consistency a priority across all devices. So where iOS would look one way, iPad OS would look the same as it currently does, but then they would make things consistent across all devices with maybe the same icons, maybe the same interactions, and maybe just some slight changes here and there, but we’ll have consistency and sort of a new look. It’s loosely based on Vision OS where it’s sort of a glassy overview. And Vision OS has some of the best visuals of all of the operating systems. While I’m not a huge fan of the Vision Pro itself for a few different reasons, the overall OS itself is very nice looking and has a lot of different things that you just don’t see elsewhere, such as reflections and sort of a gloss or glassy look overall. So, I really like the look of it and to see that brought across to iOS, making it feel fresh and new, I would definitely welcome that. Of course, we are hearing about a few other features as well, such as live translation on AirPods, which I think would be great. Google’s Gemini is going to do the same thing later this year with Android. And you’ll see we could maybe use our AirPods, talk to one person in one language, whether that’s English to French, French back to English, and I could hear that in real time.
Also, there’ll be a new way to transfer to an eSIM. It seems according to Android authority, they found some code in Android 16 that hints at a new way to transfer an eSIM directly from an iPhone to an Android phone. So instead of having to go to your carrier if you want to switch to Android, you instead could just bring it nearby, sync it up, and transfer it over just like you can with iOS. Another odd thing that happened yesterday or the other day is that Apple bought a gaming company. And this hints at a new gaming app. According to Mark German, we’re going to have an all new dedicated arcade app or gaming app instead of having it directly in the app store. So instead of going into the app store, going to an arcade, we would have a dedicated app, whether it’s for arcade or just video games in general as they make a push toward that. Whether that has to do with tvOS 26 or possibly something else as far as hardware goes, we don’t really know. But to see them push into more video games is something we’ve seen more and more every year and we’ve heard about for quite some time now. Another thing Apple could change is the iPhone naming scheme. We do expect it to be iPhone 17 Air with some new models. We’ve talked about this before with some of these dummy units that show off what it could look like. And I’ve shown you where the one design could be this big camera bar at the back and a smaller one on the iPhone 17 Air. However, they could change this to the iPhone 26. If it’s based on the year, it could go along with the operating system, making things consistent once again across everything. So, it will be very odd to see if Apple actually changes everything here or if it’s just something they’re making it more consistent, easier to remember, and maybe they’re not going to have yearly cycles on these anymore. I would highly doubt that, but maybe that’s what their goal is. Switch it to iPhone 26, iOS 26, and just have it all for that year and then move on to iPhone 27 later on. That would make a lot of sense, but we’ll have to wait and see if that’s what they do.
They could just drop the year altogether and say this is the iPhone for 2026 and just call it iPhone, iPhone Pro or iPhone Ultra or something along those lines as well. Now, of course, WWDC is just about a week and a half or so away, not even. And we do expect some changes there as well. Maybe some surprise hardware updates with some new displays, a new studio display or Pro Display XDR. And at WWDC, hopefully, not only will we get operating systems, but maybe we’ll get an updated Mac Pro with the M3 Ultra finally. And there’s also rumors that the M3 Ultra could also make its way into Mac. So, we could have a MacBook Pro with an M3 Ultra as well. Let me know what you think of the overall name change in the comments below. Is it something you think makes sense? Do you like the name? Or do you think Apple should keep iOS 19 and iOS 20 and go on that route? Let me know what you think in the comments below, and I’ll link this wallpaper in the description. like I normally do.
