In various ways, this year’s Apple operating system updates (iOS 26, iPadOS 26, macOS 26 and so on) represented a major departure from the past, from the new version numbering system to the radical new Liquid Glass design language. But not everyone was convinced.
Liquid Glass proved controversial, so much so that Apple was forced to add a toggle to let users tone down its showy visual effects. iOS 26 and its siblings were also beset by bugs, from keyboard typos to battery drain. And this all follows the heavily AI-focused launches in 2024, which promised numerous features that would end up heavily delayed or fail to appear at all.
With this background, it’s perhaps not surprising to learn that 2026’s launches will reportedly take a different approach. In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Bloomberg writer Mark Gurman reports that iOS 27 and the other OS updates next year will be what’s known as maintenance releases, focusing on improving stability and performance rather than new features. He doesn’t cite a source for this prediction, but usually bases his claims on anonymous reports from within the company.
“For iOS 27 and next year’s other major operating system updates,” Gurman writes, “the company is focused on improving the software’s quality and underlying performance… Engineering teams are now combing through Apple’s operating systems, hunting for bloat to cut, bugs to eliminate, and any opportunity to meaningfully boost performance and overall quality.”
As Gurman points out, this would be reminiscent of Mac OS X Snow Leopard, the Mac update released in 2009. Much like iOS 27, this followed a major and somewhat disruptive update, in the shape of 2007’s Mac OS X Leopard; rather than trying to pile on even more change, Apple chose to fix and optimize the raft of new features it already had.
The slight problem is that these days, iPhone OS updates in particular are big news, generally forming the centerpiece of Apple’s publicly broadcast WWDC keynote in the summer. Having to get on (virtual) stage and spend more than an hour talking about bug fixes and bloat elimination may not be an appealing prospect for Craig Federighi, who will want at least a few tentpole features to discuss. And Gurman concedes that this will probably happen.
The tentpole features, inevitably, will focus on AI. Gurman says we can expect Apple’s AI health agent to arrive next year, as well as AI-powered web search. With the new Siri finally expected to roll out in the spring, iOS 27 will be able to build on a firm AI foundation.
Watching WWDC, one will no doubt be left with the impression that AI is the big news for 2026. But look more closely, and the evidence suggests that the real change will be more understated, and perhaps more valuable.