An OS Version Number Suggestion for 2026 and Beyond

With its upcoming OS 26, Apple has finally synchronized all of its software platforms to share the same major version number. I think that this will usher in a great opportunity for Apple-centric software developers to use a version number strategy for their own applications which is able to impart more precise detail than most of the existing strategies I see used today.

One caveat to all of this: I am not an iOS developer — just an average web dev who has overheard many discussions surrounding this topic in podcasts over the years, so there may very well be points I haven't considered.

If you are developing exclusively for Apple platforms, I think that it makes a lot of sense to use Major.Minor.Bugfix pattern, but rather than waiting for a particular bundle of features to justify bumping the major version, consider matching the major version to the *earliest supported* version of the Apple OS. So, in essence, if you are shipping an update which would require devices to have an OS version of 26 or greater, you would number the build as 26.1.0.

The benefits of this system would be that it's more in line with the principles of semantic versioning, in that the first and most prominent value is to indicate a breaking change in compatibility. Of course, that's not something most app users would know or care about, but seeing that the version number of an app is several numbers behind the OS that they're currently running could demonstrate a developer's willingness to keep supporting older hardware.

It could potentially avoid the issue of using a purely date-based system (e.g., 2026.1.0), which looks ambiguous as to whether the point release refers to the month or the sequential version number, and could lead some to think the app hasn't been updated recently.

Of course, this is only going to be feasible in a few years when we can expect all of a given userbase for an app to be running an OS version 26 or later, but I think that if I were ever to start dipping my toes into the app development world, this is a strategy I'd consider.