Member-only story
Apple Has Officially Lost Its Mind Again — iOS 19 Is Now Called iOS 26
For Apple, numbers are a vibe, not a sequence!
If your brain just short-circuited reading the title, you’re not alone. I reacted similarly when I first read this news about Apple renaming the iOS 19 update to iOS 26. Now look, I love a good last-moment plot twist, but this ain’t that one.
And it’s not just the case with iOS. Apple will be rebranding all its operating systems in the same way. This includes iPadOS, macOS, watchOS, and others. They will be unveiled a few days from now on June 9 at WWDC 25.
Now, in case you’re wondering why Apple skipped the digits in the iOS sequence, let me remind you that this isn’t the first time Apple has pulled such a move. Confusion has always been synonymous with Apple. Remember how we got the iPhone X (10) right after the iPhone 7?
Anyway, let’s come back to iOS 26 again. Let’s talk about why this makes some sense, why it also makes zero sense, and why (for better or worse) Apple is going to get away with it anyway:
