So, Apple just held its annual WWDC conference where it announces all the new software for the next year. And the company proudly announced the next version of iOS for the iPhone, iOS 26. If you have an iPhone model newer than the XS, you will be able to update to iOS 26 for free later this year.
But the current version number of iOS is iOS 18. So what happened to iOS 19? Why did Apple jump to 26?
The simple reason is that OS version numbers are based on marketing rather than hard science, and Apple can name its platforms whatever it wants.
Apple has taken this opportunity to align the iPhone operating system version number with the current calendar year. But isn’t the current year 2025, and 2026 is next year? Yes, but the lifetime of the new OS will mostly reside in 2026. iOS 26 will be in developer beta this summer and only officially launch to the public in September 2025.
iOS 26 will then be the current operating system all the way through to September 2026, when we assume iOS 27 will be ready. But that means for nine out of the twelve months of iOS 26’s lifespan, it will be the 2026 operating system.
So, that is why Apple has decided to number iOS after the digits of the coming year. For consistency, the company is also moving all of its other platforms to the 26 numbering scheme as well. This means they will all become:
iOS 19 -> iOS 26
iPadOS 19 -> iPadOS 26
watchOS 11 -> watchOS 26
macOS 15 -> macOS 26
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