Apple is tinkering with how to best develop its operating system updates, with early schedule changes in the creation of the iOS 28, macOS 28, iPadOS 28, and other OS updates to be released next year. The idea is to allow engineers to become more creative earlier in the development process, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman.
Gurman’s remarks came in his Power On newsletter on Sunday. He said Apple separates development of each year’s new operating systems into three major stages. Typically, each stage is made up of four weeks of coding followed by a four-week “convergence” period where developers integrate new features into the operating systems. However, this time around, Apple has made a change. The company is now allotting six weeks of coding and two weeks of feature convergence for iOS 28. This change is intended to give Apple’s software engineers more time to be creative in coming up with new features.
“Instead of the normal split between two four-week efforts, Apple engineers were tasked with six weeks of coding, exploration and feature development, and then only two weeks of convergence,” he said. “Employees say they like the change, indicating that it creates more time for coming up with ideas and exploring them before needing to lock things in.”
Gurman did not mention any specific iOS 28 features that he new of. The update will likely be made available in beta to developers in June following WWDC 2027 and be released in September of next year.
In June of this year, Gurman said that iOS 28 will be “far more significant” release than iOS 27. “Next year’s ’28’ releases are already shaping up to be far more significant than the ’27’ updates,” wrote Gurman, without going into details.
iOS 28 is codenamed “Bell,” while macOS 28 is “Poppy,” he said.