With Apple’s annual developers convention — WWDC 2025 — a few days away, Bloomberg reports that the company may overhaul the naming convention of its operating systems. The next Apple operating systems could be identified by year and not by a version number.

At the moment, Apple users are using iOS 18. It may give way to “iOS 26” rather than iOS 19. Other updates will be known as iPadOS 26, macOS 26, watchOS 26, tvOS 26 and visionOS 26. The plan is being considered to bring consistency to its branding; it will be less confusing to customers and developers.

9to5 Mac has reported that Apple may even rejig the names of the iPhone devices — replacing the ‘Plus’ variant with an ‘Air’ model while ‘Pro Max’ may become ‘Ultra’.

At WWDC on June 9, Apple may also announce new interfaces across the operating systems. The new look, dubbed Solarium internally, will include tvOS, watchOS and parts of visionOS, Bloomberg has reported.

In 2020, Samsung changed the naming convention of its flagship Galaxy S phone line, moving to the Galaxy S20. That device’s predecessor, which debuted in 2019, was the Galaxy S10, representing the 10th generation. In 1995, Microsoft shifted to naming major operating systems after the year they launched, rolling out Windows 95 and then Windows 98 and Windows 2000.