iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple for its iPhone line of smartphones. It was unveiled in January 2007 alongside the first-generation iPhone, and was released in June 2007. Major versions of iOS are released annually; the current stable version, iOS 26, was released to the public on September 15, 2025.
AI overview
iOS is the operating system that powers Apple's iPhone smartphones, first introduced in 2007 and updated with major new versions every year. It matters because it controls how iPhones function and shapes the experience of hundreds of millions of users worldwide who rely on these devices daily.
AI-generated from the Wikipedia summary — may contain errors.
Key facts
- OS.name
- iOS
- OS.logo
- frameless|upright=0.4|class=skin-invert
- OS.logo alt
- The word "iOS" in black San Francisco neo-grotesque sans-serif font
- OS.logo size
- 75px
- OS.screenshot
- IOS 26 Homescreen.png
- OS.screenshot_size
- 240px
- OS.caption
- Home screen of iOS 26, the most recent version
- OS.developer
- Apple
- OS.family
- Unix-like, based on Darwin (BSD), macOS
- OS.language count
- 41
- OS.language
- Arabic, Bulgarian, Catalan, Chinese Simplified, Chinese Traditional (Hong Kong), Chinese Traditional (Taiwan), Croatian, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (Australia), English (United Kingdom), English (United States), Finnish, French (Canada), French (France), German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kazakh, Korean, Malay, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese (Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Slovenian (iOS 18), Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Thai, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese
Article
31 sectionsContents
- History
- Features
- Interface
- Home screen
- System font
- Folders
- Notification Center
- Applications
- App Library
- Storage
- Accessibility
- Multitasking
- Switching applications
- Ending tasks
- Task completion
- Siri
- Game Center
- Supported processors
- Devices
- Development
- Update history and schedule
- XNU kernel
- Jailbreaking
- Unlocking
- Digital rights management
- Security and privacy
- Reception
- Market share
- See also
- References
- External links
iOS (formerly iPhone OS) is a mobile operating system created and developed by Apple for its iPhone line of smartphones. It was unveiled in January 2007 alongside the first-generation iPhone, and was released in June 2007. Major versions of iOS are released annually; the current stable version, iOS 26, was released to the public on September 15, 2025.
Besides powering iPhone, iOS is the basis for three other operating systems made by Apple: iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS. iOS formerly also powered iPads until iPadOS was introduced in 2019 and the iPod Touch line of devices until its discontinuation. iOS is the world's second most widely installed mobile operating system, after Android. As of December 2023, Apple's App Store contains more than 3.8 million iOS mobile apps.