Apple announced iOS 26 at its Worldwide Developers Conference in June, but at the time it said it would release the update to the general public this fall. So I looked at past Apple events in September and previous iOS releases to predict when the company would release iOS 26.
And I was right. Apple announced online that iOS 26 will be released as a free update on Monday. Apple typically releases updates around 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT, so that means everyone has just under 72 hours to get new features like a liquid glass design, call screening, and new ringtones on their iPhones. The company announced the software update on the same day that the iPhone 17 and the iPhone 17 Plus are scheduled to be released.
Here’s how I predicted the iOS 26 release date before Apple even announced it.
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Apple held its “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday, September 9th, the same day I predicted the company would. For the past 10 years, Apple has held its September event from September 7th to 14th, usually on a Tuesday (six times) with a few Wednesdays (three times) and one Monday.
We usually don’t have to wait long after Apple’s September event for iOS updates to be released.
How did I correctly predict the release of iOS 26?
Apple doesn’t usually announce iOS releases, but it sticks to a script year after year. That means you too can do Apple fortune telling if you understand its fall events and iOS release history.
Apple held its “Awe Dropping” event on Tuesday, September 9th, the same day I predicted the company would. After most of Apple’s September events, the company releases the next iOS within a week. For example, in 2024, Apple’s event was held on September 9th, and iOS 18 was released seven days later, on September 16th. In 2023, Apple’s event was held on September 12th, and it released iOS 17 six days later, on September 18th.
There has only been one year in the last decade where it took longer than a week for Apple to release the next version of iOS – 2019. Even then, Apple still released the next version of iOS nine days after its September event.
The number of days between Apple’s September event and the release of the next version of iOS has also decreased slightly – down slightly over the past decade. In 2015, Apple released iOS 9 on September 16, seven days after the company’s September event, and in 2022, Apple released iOS 16 on September 12, five days after the company’s September 7 event.
During that same period, Apple released six versions of iOS during its weekly event. So the math pointed to iOS 26 being released six or seven days after its September 9th event.
Apple also released the previous four versions of iOS on the Monday after the September event. So this could be the new norm, and Apple will release all future versions of iOS on the Monday after the September event. So it’s likely that Apple will release iOS 26 on Monday.
Great, so when will Apple release iOS 26 again?
Perhaps this explanation takes some of the mystique out of my prediction, but that’s how I came up with Monday, September 15th as the iOS 26 release date. Apple confirmed it shortly after its “Awe Drop” event on September 9th.
For more on iOS 26, here are my first impressions of the beta, how to enable call screening in the beta, and all the new features Apple said it will bring to your device later this year. You can also check out our iOS 26 cheat sheet.
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