William Gallagher
Apple is reportedly considering rebranding the Apple ID as "Apple Account," and may make the change before the end of 2024.
Apple ID is the way users log in to Apple Services. It's such a familiar part of using the Apple ecosystem that it's not thought about, until a user wants to merge two or more Apple IDs together
The Apple ID is such an integral part of everything to do with Apple now that it's hard to definitively say when it began. Apart from the abortive eWorld in the '90s or the dealer-only AppleLink of the '80s, the first time users had to sign in to anything was with iTools in 2000.
Even then, that service was free so there was no registering of credit cards with it, and consequently less need for security. Then the iTunes Music Store came along in 2003, and now the sign in was more often, more formally, called Apple ID.
So whether it's for 24 years or merely 21, Apple ID has been part of being an Apple user for decades — and now it may change.
According to MacRumors, Apple is considering renaming the sign-in identification to "Apple Account." It may do this before the end of 2024, in which case it's reasonable to expect that the rebrand could be launched alongside the forthcoming iOS 18 and next version of macOS.
There's no detail about why Apple would be considering this, nor any certainty over whether it will happen.
If it's not to just be cosmetic rebranding, perhaps Apple will be altering or improving Apple ID in some way that warrants distinguishing it from the previous model. However, other than finally allowing IDs to be merged, or somehow connecting the ID to a wider rollout of the Apple Card, it's hard to guess what further features it could bring.
Mike Wuerthele
Amber Neely
Christine McKee
Marko Zivkovic
18 Comments
Apple ID sounds better.
I hope they finally allow the App Store and iCloud accounts to be merged. I'm still forced to use 2 email & passwords for it.
Excellent idea. Apple ID was always confusing; every company in the world clarifies the difference between the account, the log-in identification (mostly an email address), and the password. Only Apple blurs the lines.
Who knows, this may be the first step allowing users to use another Apple email address and, shock horror, merge two addresses under one account?
Apple Account sounds more accurate in what it is. If Apple ID never existed before and this was being set up for the first time, I think that Apple Account makes more sense. Just the same way that when the rumor first appeared that Apple was changing the name from OS X to macOS, it just seemed very logical.
Great. Now let me merge and consolidate all my Apple IDs into one account.