Apple references unreleased iOS 15 and macOS 12 updates in WebKit code

Chance Miller | Mar 29 2021 - 8:04 am PT

As we await Apple’s official announcement of WWDC 2021, Apple’s open-source WebKit code has recently been updated by Apple to include references to the looming iOS 15 and macOS 12 software updates. WebKit code usually refers to future versions as “TBA” to hide their actual version numbers…

9to5Mac was able to confirm that the mentions of iOS 15 and macOS 12 were added to the open-source WebKit repository last month. It was added with the commit message “Update WKWebView getUserMedia delegate to latest proposal,” by an Apple employee who works on the WebKit technology.

Unfortunately, this WebKit mention does not confirm anything about what to expect from this year’s updates to iOS and macOS. It coud, however, suggest Apple’s likely naming plans for the iOS and macOS updates coming at WWDC this summer.

While the marketing names of future Apple’s operating systems don’t necessarily reflect what’s used in code, these are the first references of macOS 12.0 and iOS 15.0 coming from Apple. As we wrote earlier, WebKit code usually calls future versions as “TBA” to hide their actual version numbers.

The macOS naming is particularly notable this year because Apple jumped from macOS 10.15 Catalina to macOS 11 Big Sur. This marked a notable change in the macOS naming conventions for the first time since the introduction of Mac OS X in 2000.

Following the introduction of macOS 11 Big Sur, many people speculated on whether Apple would cycle through the 11.0 point versions for yearly updates like it did with Mac OS X. Instead, Apple subsequently released macOS 11.1 as a minor update, indicating that macOS would switch to an update naming style similar to iOS for yearly releases.

Apple has yet to announce any details about WWDC 2021, which is a change from prior years. As we detailed earlier this month, here are the dates on which Apple announced plans for WWDC for the past five years:

2016: April 18
2017: February 16
2018: March 13
2019: March 14
2020: March 13

WWDC 2021 is likely to be a virtual event this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We expect the event to include iOS 15, macOS 12, watchOS 8, and more. It’s not surprising to see these references to iOS 15 and macOS 12, but it is a fun fact to know what’s going on internally at Apple.