iOS 19 May Never See The Light Of Day As Apple Reportedly Revamps OS Strategy

Apple's WWDC event this year is going to be a special one. Not just because the company will take the stage and hopefully calm down the spooked investors with its lagging AI approach, or the rumored design overhaul we are going to see across the entire software portfolio. It seems the company will go back to the drawing board and reimagine the entire naming system, too. As per Bloomberg, Apple is eying a numerical overhaul that will align with the year number — instead of the expected iOS 19, we'll get iOS 26.

Likewise, the sister operating systems will go by iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26, and visionOS 26. Why is Apple making such a pivot? Well, there's no deep-rooted philosophical strategy here. Per Bloomberg, "Apple is making the change to bring consistency to its branding and move away from an approach that can be confusing to customers and developers." If you look at the current portfolio, it's about haphazard numbers and names. iOS is at version 18, macOS is on Sequoia, while watchOS sits back at iteration number 12.

Not too long ago, the Mac operating system went by the moniker "OS X," which itself replaced "Mac OS," and was eventually replaced by the "macOS" branding. Apple also broke away with the numerical scheme and started picking up landmark names such as Sonoma, Monterey, Ventura, and Big Sur. Before that, it was all about big cats such as the Jaguar, Snow Leopard, and Mountain Lion.

The big change, of course, is going to be the software itself. Apple is reportedly eyeing a design language overhaul, one that is similar to the visionOS flavor. That means a rethinking of animations and iconography. On the functional side, Apple is reportedly cooking up an AI coach that will ingest readings collected by biosensors and offer tailored guidance to users about workouts, and even assist with meal planning. An AI-powered battery health feature is also said to be in development. 

The Game Center, which was once an app, will return spiritually. This time around, Apple will push it under a different name, and it will act more like a game launcher hub on iOS, as well as iPads, Macs, and even Apple TV. As far as AI goes, Apple is eyeing a big splash. So far, the company has lagged behind rivals such as Google's Gemini and Microsoft's Copilot, both of which have been integrated deeply within the core of Android and Windows. 

Apple has missed out on that opportunity, and as a stopgap solution, partnered with OpenAI to integrate ChatGPT within the Apple Intelligence stack. That bonhomie isn't exactly revolutionary. According to Bloomberg, Apple will announce at WWDC 2025 that it's opening its AI models to developers, letting them integrate AI capabilities within apps. Interestingly, Apple will only allow access to low-end AI models that can run natively on the device itself, somewhat like on-device Gemini Nano processing on a bunch of high-end Android phones.