iOS

iOS
iOS 26, the most recent release of iOS
DeveloperApple
Written inC, C++, Objective-C, Swift, assembly language
OS familyUnix-like, based on Darwin (BSD), macOS
Working stateCurrent
Source modelClosed, with open-source components
Initial releaseJune 29, 2007 (2007-06-29)
Latest release26.0[1] (23A341)[2] (September 15, 2025 (2025-09-15)) [±]
Marketing target
Available in41 languages[3]
List of languages
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
Update method
Supported platforms
Kernel typeHybrid (XNU)
Default
user interface		Multi-touch GUI
LicenseProprietary software except for open-source components
Official websitewww.apple.com/ios/
Articles in the series
iOS version history

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.[4]

Besides powering iPhone, iOS is the basis for three other operating systems made by Apple: iPadOS, tvOS, and watchOS.[5] iOS formerly also powered iPads until iPadOS was introduced in 2019 and the iPod Touch line of devices until its discontinuation.[6] 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.[7]

iOS is based on macOS. Like macOS, it includes components of the Mach microkernel and FreeBSD.[8][9] It is a Unix-like operating system. Although some parts of iOS are open source under the Apple Public Source License[10] and other licenses,[11] iOS is proprietary software.[12]

  1. ^ Clover, Juli (September 15, 2025). "Apple Releases iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 With New Liquid Glass Design". MacRumors. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  2. ^ "iOS 26 (23A341) - Releases". Apple Developer. September 15, 2025. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  3. ^ "iOS and iPadOS – Feature Availability". Apple Inc. Archived from the original on May 12, 2023. Retrieved May 16, 2023.
  4. ^ Clover, Juli (September 15, 2025). "Apple Releases iOS 26 and iPadOS 26 With New Liquid Glass Design". MacRumors. Retrieved September 15, 2025.
  5. ^ Espósito, Filipe (April 13, 2020). "HomePod now runs on tvOS, here's what that could mean". 9to5Mac. Archived from the original on April 14, 2020. Retrieved December 12, 2022.
  6. ^ "The music lives on". Apple Newsroom. Archived from the original on May 11, 2022. Retrieved June 28, 2022.
  7. ^ "Number of apps from the Apple App Store 2022". Statista. Archived from the original on February 7, 2022. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  8. ^ "Is Mac Os X Microkernel? – LEMP". Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  9. ^ "iOS/About iOS/Mach_and_BSD.md at master · writeups/iOS". GitHub. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  10. ^ "License - APSL". opensource.apple.com. Archived from the original on December 11, 2017. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
  11. ^ "cups/cups/LICENSE at main - apple-oss-distributions/cups". GitHub. Retrieved August 7, 2025.
  12. ^ Rogucki, Michał (October 28, 2023). "Why is iOS not open source?". TS2 SPACE. Archived from the original on December 16, 2023. Retrieved December 16, 2023.
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