Starting in the fall of 2024 with iOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and more, Apple is rebranding Apple ID to "Apple Account" across all of its services.
The familiar Apple ID is getting rebranded
"Apple ID" as a term has been around for more than two decades. The company didn't make the change at the WWDC keynote, but instead dropped it in the tail-end of a press release on Thursday discussing feature changes to services coming in the fall.
"With the releases of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, macOS Sequoia, and watchOS 11, Apple ID is renamed to Apple Account for a consistent sign-in experience across Apple services and devices, and relies on a user's existing credentials," the company said.
Apple ID has been such a familiar part of using the Apple ecosystem for so long, that the branding is not often thought about. That Apple ID branding 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 "Apple ID" has been used for 24 years or merely 21, Apple ID has been part of being an Apple user for decades. And, now, it's changing.
Rumors first started spreading about the change in February.