Whether you’ve been using Apple devices for years or just picked up your first iPhone, you’ll be familiar with the Apple ID. It’s your login for all things Apple and it’s been the key to accessing your devices and services for a long time. But a new report suggests that the humble Apple ID is about to change in an attempt to better reflect the way that it is used.
Apple IDs are now used as a method of authentication for third-party apps, Apple itself, the Apple Store, and more and that means that its name perhaps doesn’t best fit the way people think about it. Now, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman reports that Apple intends to rebrand the Apple ID to Apple Account, changing the branding across all Apple devices as well as the iCloud.com website. The move could happen this year, Gurman wrote in the latest Power On weekly newsletter.
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Gurman’s report matches a previous one by MacRumors that suggested such a move was in the works. Gurman says that Apple will start to use the new Apple Account branding later this year with iOS 18 and watchOS 11 among the first software releases to initiate the switch. Those releases are all expected to debut this June at the annual WWDC event, while the updates aren’t expected to arrive on devices until this fall.
Notably, Apple does already use the Apple Account term when adding funds to accounts. Funds are then added to an Apple Account balance, suggesting that Apple may already have initiated the switch some time ago.