Apple ID is getting a rebrand starting with the release of iOS 18
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.
Read on AppleInsider
Comments
It's really the website's problem. I am so fed up with websites being so inept with implementing the correct login credentials. The credentials should provide clear information to password managers (in HTML) or stay in its domain rather than redirecting back and forth in URL confusing password managers. There's no excuse.
for eWorld.
This brings up the other me.com accounts as well.
I couldn’t agree more about the need to be able to merge accounts. It is really infuriating and in no way makes things “simpler” which I thought that was Apple’s goal!
Things have actually gotten better but the root cause issue can never be resolved because Apple will never allow anyone to consolidate Apple IDs. What they have done is to allow you to specify two (2) sets of Apple ID credentials when setting up your Apple devices. One is for iCloud and the other one is assumed to be for media purchases, etc., that are "captive" with a second Apple ID. They have also improved their queries for entering Apple ID credentials to make it more clear which Apple ID is involved so you don't enter the wrong passcode. There was also a time around the rollout of multi-factor authentication (MFA) because some older devices did not have the ability to handle MFA. As a workaround users had to get a MFA code from an authentication query on a registered device and append the MFA code to their Apple ID when logging in using a device that could not handle MFA, like Apple TV and older iPhones and iPod Touches. This kludge was not well advertised or made clear when trying to log in and even users who knew about the kludge often found themselves stuck, or their Apple ID locked.
Now that all or most of the devices that don't natively support MFA have crawled into the tarpit and Apple is doing a much better job of clarifying which Apple ID they want, things are better but still not perfect. The only way to "somewhat" consolidate all of your paid content across your Apple devices is to make one of your Apple ID accounts a family member of the other. Goofy as hell for sure, but at least I can now access all of the content that I purchased under my old iTunes/MobileMe Apple ID from my iCloud Apple ID account. I am both the account owner and a family member of myself.
I also don't see how changing the name of Apple ID to Account ID is going to disambiguate anything at all from the current confusion. It's like they've suddenly decided to refer to what was once called a "frankfurter" as a "hot dog." Hopefully it will turn out to be more than what it currently appears to be.
Checkout this hot mess haha: My original Apple ID was my AOL Instant Messenger user name, then when Apple killed that, they allowed me to link my AOL ID purchases to a new Apple ID with which I used my Gmail address for a few years... Then, when MobileMe was released I signed up and generated a new @me.com email address and Apple ID. So nowadays, in order to access ALL of the purchased content I have, going back to about 2001ish, I have to authorize any new Mac w/ both the @gmail.com (which has the AOL account purchases folded into it also) and @me.com Apple IDs. That being said, it's practically not an issue for apps nowadays considering how many older apps have been left behind over the years and for my music/stand up comedy it's not so bad considering that I use Apple Music and most of that same content is there as well (Same goes for Apple Arcade as part of Apple One that I use). Over time it has become less of an issue, but still would it be so nice for Apple to let those of us (typically who have been in their eco system for a long time no less) merge everything neatly into one account? I still have no issue using my @me.com as my primary email address to this day (and I like how it stands out a little lol, some guys still have @ Mac.com addresses too I believe). But now that iCloud+ allows for multiple email aliases, I figure if I ever give up on filtering junk mail I'll just keep the @me.com Apple "Account" and change the email alias if needed to avoid having a 4th account to deal with lol.
Another bone of contention to me is having to maintain completely separate (but identical) contact/shipping/billing information between the Apple.com store and iCloud... For example, I tried to use my Apple Balance to purchase and iPhone 14 Pro last year and it would continually fail to authorize the purchase... Lo and behold, when I bought my house (in 2016!) I had entered "Cir" in my Apple ID and "Circle" in my Apple.com store account for my billing address and THAT mismatch alone was enough to prevent using Apple Balance for an online equipment purchase... No one at Apple could figure it out after 4 hours on the phone, I only luckily stumbled into a short Reddit discussion about this that saved me haha. So crazy in today's day and age...