No, the iOS 19 code name isn’t a clue about its design

Macworld

Last week, Apple announced that its big WWDC keynote will take place on June 9, which means we have about two months of rumors and speculation. The latest report from Mark Gurman might seem like a big clue, but I’m here to assure you, it’s not.

In the latest edition of his Power On newsletter, Gurman takes a moment to address the numerous images supposedly showing the look of iOS 19 that circulated the web last week. He reiterates his claim that the fake screenshots “aren’t representative of what Apple will show when it announces the new software at WWDC,” but doesn’t offer any details on the new operating system save one: the code name is Solarium, defined by Oxford as “a room fitted with extensive areas of glass to admit sunlight.”

It’s natural to assume this is a clue that iOS 19 will be light and airy, with transparent layers designed to let light in. It’s a logical conclusion, especially since Jon Prosser of Front Page Tech released a video last week that showcased renders of iOS 19 with extra transparency. Gurman himself has teased that iOS 19 will take its cues from visionOS with “greater transparency and new types of windows and buttons.”

If any of that is true, it’ll be easy to look back on this Solarium rumor and see how obvious it was. But historically, Apple’s codenames don’t have anything to do with the shipping product. For example, last year’s iOS 18 codename was Crystal, and iOS 17’s was Dawn. iOS 12? Peace.

Now, if you really want to find meaning in those names, I suppose you can. Crystal could refer to the ability to customize icons with ease or as a reference to Apple Intelligence. Peace could refer to the new Do Not Disturb options introduced with iOS 12. Dawn could be related to using an iPhone in StandBy mode as an alarm clock.

But they likely mean nothing. The last major change to iOS’s interface came with iOS 7. That codename? Innsbruck, a mountainous city in Austria popular for skiing. Back then Apple was fond of naming iOS versions after winter resort cities, and being that iOS 7 introduced Apple’s first flat design, naming it after a city with nearly 70 named mountains could be a tongue-in-cheek nod to its new look. But like Solarium, it almost certainly wasn’t.