ios this article is about apples mobile operating system for other uses see ios disambiguation ios formerly iphone os is a mobile operating system created and developed by apple inc exclusively for its hardware it is the operating system that presently powers many of the companys mobile devices including the iphone ipad and ipod touch it is the second most popular mobile operating system globally after android originally unveiled in 2007 for the iphone ios has been extended to support other apple devices such as the ipod touch september 2007 and the ipad january 2010 as of march2018 these mobile apps have collectively been downloaded more than 130billion times the ios user interface is based upon direct manipulation using multitouch gestures interface control elements consist of sliders switches and buttons interaction with the os includes gestures such as swipe tap pinch and reverse pinch all of which have specific definitions within the context of the ios operating system and its multitouch interface internal accelerometers are used by some applications to respond to shaking the device one common result is the undo command or rotating it in three dimensions one common result is switching between portrait and landscape mode apple has been significantly praised for incorporating thorough accessibility functions into ios enabling users with vision and hearing disabilities to properly use its products major versions of ios are released annually the current version ios 12 was released on september 17 2018 it is available for all ios devices with 64bit processors the iphone 5s and later iphone models the ipad 2017 the ipad air and later ipad air models all ipad pro models the ipad mini 2 and later ipad mini models and the sixthgeneration ipod touch on all recent ios devices the ios regularly checks on the availability of an update and if one is available will prompt the user to permit its automatic installation history media all and ios logo used until 2013 left and logo used 201317 right in 2005 when steve jobs began planning the iphone he had a choice to either shrink the mac which would be an epic feat of engineering or enlarge the ipod jobs favored the former approach but pitted the macintosh and ipod teams led by scott forstall and tony fadell respectively against each other in an internal competition with forstall winning by creating the iphone os the decision enabled the success of the iphone as a platform for thirdparty developers using a wellknown desktop operating system as its basis allowed the many thirdparty mac developers to write software for the iphone with minimal retraining forstall was also responsible for creating a software development kit for programmers to build iphone apps as well as an app store within itunes the operating system was unveiled with the iphone at the macworld conference expo on january 9 2007 and released in june of that year the ios app store was opened on july 10 2008 with an initial 500 applications available in september 2007 apple announced the ipod touch a redesigned ipod based on the iphone form factor in june 2010 apple rebranded iphone os as ios the trademark ios had been used by cisco for over a decade for its operating system ios used on its routers to avoid any potential lawsuit apple licensed the ios trademark from cisco in october 2016 apple opened its first ios developer academy in naples inside university of naples federico iis new campus software updates ios version history see also iphone os 1 iphone os 2 iphone os 3 ios 4 ios 5 ios 6 ios 7 ios 8 ios 9 ios 10 ios 11 and ios 12 platform usage as measured by the app store on october 10 2018 ios 12 50ios 11 39ios 10 and earlier 11 apple provides major updates to the ios operating system annually via itunes and also for ios 5 and later overtheair originally ipod touch users had to pay for system software updates this was due to accounting rules making the device not a subscription device like iphone or apple tv and significant enhancements to the device required payments features home screen springboard ios 11 running on an iphone 7 plus left and on an ipad pro right the home screen rendered by springboard displays application icons and a dock at the bottom where users can pin their most frequently used apps the home screen appears whenever the user unlocks the device or presses the physical home button whilst in another app in iphone os 3 spotlight was introduced allowing users to search media apps emails contacts messages reminders calendar events and similar content in ios 7 and later spotlight is accessed by pulling down anywhere on the home screen except for the top and bottom edges that open notification center and control center since ios 32 users are able to set a background image for the home screen this feature is only available on thirdgeneration devicesiphone 3gs thirdgeneration ipod touch ios 40 or newer all ipad models since ios 32or newer researchers found that users organize icons on their homescreens based on usagefrequency and relatedness of the applications as well as for reasons of usability and aesthetics system font ios originally used helvetica as the system font apple switched to helvetica neue exclusively for the iphone 4 and its retina display and retained helvetica as the system font for older iphone devices on ios 4 folders ios 4 introduced folders which can be created by dragging an application on top of another and from then on more items can be added to the folder using the same procedure a title for the folder is automatically selected by the category of applications inside but the name can also be edited by the user notification center notification center before ios 5 notifications were delivered in a modal window and couldnt be viewed after being dismissed in ios 5 apple introduced notification center which allows users to view a history of notifications the user can tap a notification to open its corresponding app or clear it notifications are now delivered in banners that appear briefly at the top of the screen if a user taps a received notification the application that sent the notification will be opened users can also choose to view notifications in modal alert windows by adjusting the applications notification settings introduced with ios 8 widgets are now accessible through the notification center defined by 3rd parties when an app sends a notification while closed a red badge appears on its icon this badge tells the user at a glance how many notifications that app has sent opening the app clears the badge accessibility ios offers various accessibility features to help users with vision and hearing disabilities one major feature voiceover provides a voice reading information on the screen including contextual buttons icons links and other user interface elements and allows the user to navigate the operating system through gestures any apps with default controls and developed with a uikit framework gets voiceover functionality built in in 2012 liat kornowski from the atlantic wrote that the iphone has turned out to be one of the most revolutionary developments since the invention of braille multitasking multitasking for ios was first released in june 2010 along with the release of ios 4 implementation of multitasking in ios has been criticized for its approach which limits the work that applications in the background can perform to a limited function set and requires application developers to add explicit support for it before ios 4 multitasking was limited to a selection of the applications apple included on the device users could however jailbreak their device in order to unofficially multitask background audio application continues to run in the background as long as it is playing audio or video content voice over ip application is suspended when a phone call is not in progress background location application is notified of location changes push notifications local notifications application schedules local notifications to be delivered at a predetermined time task completion application asks the system for extra time to complete a given task fast app switching application does not execute any code and may be removed from memory at any time in ios 5 three new background apis were introduced newsstand application can download content in the background to be ready for the user external accessory application communicates with an external accessory and shares data at regular intervals bluetooth accessory application communicates with a bluetooth accessory and shares data at regular intervals in ios 7 apple introduced a new multitasking feature providing all apps with the ability to perform background updates this feature prefers to update the users most frequently used apps and prefers to use wifi networks over a cellular network without markedly reducing the devices battery life switching applications in ios 40 to ios 6x doubleclicking the home button activates the application switcher a scrollable docklike interface appears from the bottom moving the contents of the screen up choosing an icon switches to an application to the far left are icons which function as music controls a rotation lock and on ios 42 and above a volume controller with the introduction of ios 7 double clicking the home button also activates the application switcher however unlike previous versions it displays screenshots of open applications on top of the icon and horizontal scrolling allows for browsing through previous apps and it is possible to close applications by dragging them up similar to how webos handled multiple cards with the introduction of ios 9 the application switcher received a significant visual change whilst still retaining the card metaphor introduced in ios 7 the application icon is smaller and appears above the screenshot which is now larger due to the removal of recent and favorite contacts and each application card overlaps the other forming a rolodex effect as the user scrolls now instead of the home screen appearing at the leftmost of the application switcher it appears rightmost in ios 11 the application switcher receives a major redesign in the ipad the control center and app switcher are combined the app switcher in the ipad can also be accessed by swiping up from the bottom in the iphone the app switcher cannot be accessed if there are no apps in the ram ending tasks in ios 40 to ios 6x briefly holding the icons in the application switcher makes them jiggle similarly to the homescreen and allows the user to force quit the applications by tapping the red minus circle that appears at the corner of the apps icon clearing applications from multitasking stayed the same from ios 40 through 616 the last version of ios 6 as of ios 7 the process has become faster and easier in ios 7 instead of holding the icons to close them they are closed by simply swiping them upwards off the screen up to three apps can be cleared at a time compared to one in versions up to ios 616 task completion task completion allows apps to continue a certain task after the app has been suspended this doesnt extend to background up and downloads though eg if you start a download in one application it wont finish if you switch away from the application siri siri siri sri is an intelligent personal assistant integrated into ios the assistant uses voice queries and a natural language user interface to answer questions make recommendations and perform actions by delegating requests to a set of internet services the software adapts to users individual language usages searches and preferences with continuing use returned results are individualized originally released as an app for ios in february 2010 siri supports a wide range of user commands including performing phone actions checking basic information scheduling events and reminders handling device settings searching the internet navigating areas finding information on entertainment and is able to engage with iosintegrated apps game center game center game center is an online multiplayer social gaming network game center was announced during an ios 4 preview event hosted by apple on april 8 2010 a preview was released to registered apple developers in august hardware the main hardware platform for ios is the arm architecture ios releases before ios 7 can only be run on ios devices with 32bit arm processors armv6 and armv7a architectures in 2013 ios 7 was released with full 64bit support which includes native 64bit kernel libraries drivers as well as all builtin applications development ios sdk the ios sdk software development kit allows for the development of mobile apps on ios while originally developing iphone prior to its unveiling in 2007 apples thenceo steve jobs did not intend to let thirdparty developers build native apps for ios instead directing them to make web applications for the safari web browser the sdk is a free download for users of mac personal computers combined with xcode the ios sdk helps developers write ios apps using officially supported programming languages including swift and objectivec market share usage share of operating systems ios is the second most popular mobile operating system in the world after android sales of ipads in recent years are also behind android while by web use a proxy for all use ipads using ios are still most popular by the middle of 2012 there were 410 million devices activated during apples quarterly earnings call in january 2015 the company announced that they had sold over one billion ios devices since 2007 by late 2011 ios accounted for 60 of the market share for smartphones and tablets in the third quarter of 2015 research from strategy analytics showed that ios adoption of the worldwide smartphone market was at a recordlow 121 attributed to lackluster performance in china and africa android accounted for 875 of the market with windows phone and blackberry accounting for the rest jailbreaking ios jailbreaking since its initial release ios has been subject to a variety of different hacks centered around adding functionality not allowed by apple since the arrival of apples native ios app store andalong with itthirdparty applications the general motives for jailbreaking have changed in 2010 the electronic frontier foundation eff successfully convinced the us copyright office to allow an exemption to the general prohibition on circumvention of copyright protection systems under the digital millennium copyright act dmca the exemption allows jailbreaking of iphones for the sole purpose of allowing legally obtained applications to be added to the iphone unlocking sim lock initially most wireless carriers in the us did not allow iphone owners to unlock it for use with other carriers however att allowed iphone owners who have satisfied contract requirements to unlock their iphone digital rights management the closed and proprietary nature of ios has garnered criticism particularly by digital rights advocates such as the electronic frontier foundation computer engineer and activist brewster kahle internetlaw specialist jonathan zittrain and the free software foundation who protested the ipads introductory event and have targeted the ipad with their defective by design campaign at issue are restrictions imposed by the design of ios namely digital rights management drm intended to lock purchased media to apples platform the development model requiring a yearly subscription to distribute apps developed for the ios the centralized approval process for apps as well as apples general control and lockdown of the platform itself particularly at issue is the ability for apple to remotely disable or delete apps at will some in the tech community have expressed concern that the lockeddown ios represents a growing trend in apples approach to computing particularly apples shift away from machines that hobbyists can tinker with and note the potential for such restrictions to stifle software innovation former facebook developer joe hewitt protested against apples control over its hardware as a horrible precedent but praised ioss sandboxing of apps kernel the ios kernel is the xnu kernel of darwin the original iphone os 10 up to iphone os 313 used darwin 900d1 ios 4 was based on darwin 10 ios 5 was based on darwin 11 ios 6 was based on darwin 13 ios 7 and ios 8 are based on darwin 14 ios 9 is based on darwin 15 ios 10 is based on darwin 16 ios 11 is based on darwin 17 ios 12 is based on darwin 18 security ios utilizes many security features in both hardware and software below are summaries of the most prominent features secure boot before fully booting into ios there is lowlevel code that runs from the boot rom its task is to verify that the lowlevel bootloader is signed by the apple root ca public key before running it this process is to ensure that no malicious or otherwise unauthorized software can be run on an ios device after the lowlevel bootloader finishes its tasks it runs the higher level bootloader known as iboot if all goes well iboot will then proceed to load the ios kernel as well as the rest of the operating system secure enclave the secure enclave is a coprocessor found in ios devices that contain touch id or face id it has its own secure boot process to ensure that it is completely secure a hardware random number generator is also included as a part of this coprocessor each devices secure enclave has a unique id that is given to it when it is made and cannot be changed this identifier is used to create a temporary key that encrypts the memory in this portion of the system the secure enclave also contains an antireplay counter to prevent brute force attacks passcode ios devices can have a passcode that is used to unlock the device make changes to system settings and encrypt the devices contents until recently these were typically four numerical digits long however since unlocking the devices with a fingerprint by using touch id has become more widespread sixdigit passcodes are now the default on ios with the option to switch back to four or use an alphanumeric passcode touch id touch id touch id is a fingerprint scanner that is embedded in the home button and can be used to unlock the device make purchases and log into applications among other functions when used touch id only temporarily stores the fingerprint data in encrypted memory in the secure enclave as described above there is no way for the devices main processor or any other part of the system to access the raw fingerprint data that is obtained from the touch id sensor address space layout randomization address space layout randomization address space layout randomization aslr is a lowlevel technique of preventing memory corruption attacks such as buffer overflows it involves placing data in randomly selected locations in memory in order to make it harder to predict ways to corrupt the system and create exploits aslr makes app bugs more likely to crash the app than to silently overwrite memory regardless of whether the behavior is accidental or malicious nonexecutable memory ios utilizes the arm architectures execute never xn feature this allows some portions of the memory to be marked as nonexecutable working alongside aslr to prevent buffer overflow attacks including returntolibc attacks encryption as mentioned above one use of encryption in ios is in the memory of the secure enclave when a passcode is utilized on an ios device the contents of the device are encrypted this is done by using a hardware aes 256 implementation that is very efficient because it is placed directly between the flash storage and ram ios in combination with its specific hardware uses cryptoshredding when erasing all content and settings by obliterating all the keys in effaceable storage this renderes all user data on the device cryptographically inaccessible keychain the ios keychain is a database of login information that can be shared across apps written by the same person or organization app security thirdparty applications such as those distributed through the app store must be code signed with an appleissued certificate this continues the chain of trust all the way from the secure boot process as mentioned above to the actions of the applications installed on the device by users applications are also sandboxed meaning that they can only modify the data within their individual home directory unless explicitly given permission to do otherwise for example they cannot access data that is owned by other userinstalled applications on the device there is a very extensive set of privacy controls contained within ios with options to control apps ability to access a wide variety of permissions such as the camera contacts background app refresh cellular data and access to other data and services most of the code in ios including thirdparty applications run as the mobile user which does not have root privileges this ensures that system files and other ios system resources remain hidden and inaccessible to userinstalled applications network security ios supports tls with both low and highlevel apis for developers by default the app transport security framework requires that servers use at least tls 12 however developers are free to override this framework and utilize their own methods of communicating over networks when wifi is enabled ios uses a randomized mac address so that devices cannot be tracked by anyone sniffing wireless traffic twofactor authentication multifactor authentication twofactor authentication is an option in ios to ensure that even if an unauthorized person knows an apple id and password combination they cannot gain access to the account it works by requiring not only the apple id and password but also a verification code that is sent to a device that is already known to be trusted devices list of ios devices sources apple newsroom archive information technology portal apple portal comparison of mobile operating systems ios version history list of ios devices iphone hillegass aaron conway jon march 22 2012 ios programming the big nerd ranch guide 3rd ed pearson p590 isbn9780321821522 turner kirby december 19 2011 learning ipad programming a handson guide to building ipad apps with ios 5 1st ed pearson p816 isbn9780321750402 mark dave lamarche jeff july 21 2009 beginning iphone 3 development exploring the iphone sdk 1st ed apress p584 isbn1430224592 mark dave lamarche jeff december 29 2009 more iphone 3 development tackling iphone sdk 3 1st ed apress p552 isbn143022505x wikimedia commons has media related to ios apple inc official website official website dev center at apple developer connection ios reference library on the apple developer connection website vteios and iosbased products history outline hardware apple tv 2nd 3rd ipad 1st 2 3rd 4th air 1st 2 2017 2018 ipad mini 1st 2 3 4 ipad pro 1st 2nd 3rd iphone 1st 3g 3gs 4 4s 5 5c 5s 6 6 plus 6s 6s plus se 7 7 plus 8 8 plus x xr xs xs max ipod touch 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th software airdrop airplay airprint carplay cocoa touch control center core animation homekit itunes ios 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 history night shift notification center sdk siri spotlight springboard voiceover webkit bundled apps books calendar clock contacts facetime files find my friends find my iphone health home mail maps messages music news notes photos reminders safari tv videos wallet weather watch measure discontinued newsstand apple apps airport utility clips ilife garageband imovie iwork keynote numbers pages logic remote remote discontinued beats music cards iphoto nike ipod services apple pay app store game center ibookstore icloud imessage itunes connect itunes store multitasking push notifications testflight discontinued iad itunes radio mobileme other 300page bill apple mobile application processors batterygate fairplay free and opensource ios applications games history of iphone ifund jailbreaking metal swift wwdc vteipodmodels classic photo ipodhp ipod u2 mini shuffle nano touch accessories earbuds ipod hifi nikeipod software comparison of ipod managers ios store ipod game itunes store version history other advertising click wheel dock connector italics indicate discontinued products vteoperating systems by apple incapple iiiiilisa apple ii series apple dos prodos gsos apple iii sos lisa lisa os macworks macintoshoverviewclassic mac os system 1 system 2 3 and 4 system 5 system 6 system 7 mac os 8 mac os 9 mac os x os x macos history nextstep openstep rhapsody public beta core darwin desktop mac os x 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 os x 108 109 1010 1011 macos 1012 1013 1014 server 10 macos server other projects shipped arose aux aix for apple network servers mae mklinux poweropen environment cancelled star trek taligent copland ipodiphoneipad ipod software iphone os 1 2 3 ios 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 other devices newton newton os apple watch watchos apple tv apple tv software tvos homepod audioos italics indicate discontinued products list category vtedarwinderived operating systemshistorypredarwin unix bsd mach nextstep openstep gnustep rhapsody macintoshmac os x os xmacoshistorymac os x server mac os x server 10 hera rhapsody 100 cheetah 101 puma 102 jaguar 103 panther 104 tiger 105 leopard server 106 snow leopard server mac os x public beta kodiak 100 cheetah 101 puma 102 jaguar 103 panther 104 tiger 105 leopard 106 snow leopard 107 lion os x 108 mountain lion 109 mavericks 1010 yosemite 1011 el capitan macos 1012 sierra 1013 high sierra 1014 mojaveapple tvapple tvsoftware derived from mac os x 104 tiger 1 2 3derived from ios 48 4 5 6 7 tvos derived from ios 912 9 10 11 12 iphoneipod touch ipadiphone osios derived from os x iphone os 1 2 3 ios 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 apple watchwatchos derived from ios 812 1 2 3 4 5 homepodaudioos derived from ios 1112 11 12 others opendarwin macportsdarwinports puredarwin macos version history server ios version history watchos version history tvos version history audioos version history vteunix and unixlike operating systems bsd 386bsd freebsd netbsd openbsd dragonfly bsd nextstep darwin macos ios watchos tvos audioos sunos ultrix coherent gnu linux android chrome os lynxos minix qnx blackberry 10 research unix system v aux aix hpux illumos irix openserver solaris tru64 unix unixware xenix more italics indicate discontinued branches category commons book vteoperating systemsgeneral advocacy comparison forensic engineering history hobbyist development list timeline usage share kernelarchitectures exokernel hybrid microkernel monolithic rump kernel unikernel components device driver loadable kernel module microkernel user space process managementconcepts context switch interrupt ipc process process control block realtime thread timesharing schedulingalgorithms computer multitasking fixedpriority preemptive multilevel feedback queue preemptive roundrobin shortest job next memory management andresource protection bus error general protection fault memory protection paging protection ring segmentation fault virtual memory storage access andfile systems boot loader defragmentation device file file attribute inode journal partition virtual file system virtual tape library list amigaos android beos bsd chrome os cpm dos genode gnu haiku illumos includeos ios linux macintosh classic mac os macos minix morphos musicsp nemesis nextstep nos openvms orvyl os2 osv pick qnx reactos risc os rstse rsx11 rt11 solaris tops10tops20 tpf unix visi on vmcms vs9 webos windows xinu zos miscellaneous concepts api computer network hal live cd live usb os shell cli gui nui tui vui zui pxe vtemobile operating systemslinuxkernel android forks bada ezx linux firefox os b2g os kaios maemo maemo leste meego mer sailfish os moblin motomagx openembedded ngstrm kaeilos openmoko linux qtmoko shr postmarketos tizen ubuntu touch ubports webos luneos xnu ios qnx blackberry 10 blackberry tablet os windows windows xp tablet pc edition windows mobile windows phone 7 8 81 windows rt windows 10 mobile zircon fuchsia other blackberry os epoc geos magic cap nintendo dsi nintendo 3ds s30 s30 s40 nokia asha platform palmdos palm os psp ps vita symbian comparison of mobile operating systems list of mobile app distribution platforms open handset alliance open mobile alliance mobile app development vteapple inc history outline founders steve jobs steve wozniak ronald wayne board ofdirectorscurrent james a bell tim cook ceo albert gore jr robert a iger andrea jung arthur d levinson chairman ronald d sugar susan l wagner former gil amelio fred d anderson bill campbell mickey drexler al eisenstat larry ellison steve jobs delano lewis mike markkula arthur rock eric schmidt john sculley edgar s woolard jr jerry york executivescurrent tim cook ceo jony ive cdo jeff williams coo luca maestri cfo isabel ge mahe katherine adams general counsel angela ahrendts eddy cue craig federighi lisa jackson dan riccio phil schiller johny srouji former gil amelio fred d anderson john browett guerrino de luca paul deneve al eisenstat tony fadell scott forstall ellen hancock nancy r heinen steve jobs ron johnson mike markkula david nagel peter oppenheimer mark papermaster jon rubinstein michael scott john sculley bertrand serlet bruce sewell michael spindler sina tamaddon avie tevanian ronald wayne steve wozniak productshardware mac imac imac pro macbook family mac mini mac pro ipod classic nano shuffle touch iphone ipad mini air pro accessories apple tv apple watch airpods homepod software classic mac os macos history server software ios version history tvos watchos audioos core foundation developer tools final cut pro logic pro quicktime carplay homekit services apple id apple maps apple music apple pay developer iad testflight wwdc game center icloud mobileme iwork news newsstand stores app store ios macos tvos apple store ibookstore itunes store support applecare apple specialist certifications genius bar procare one to one companiessubsidiaries beats electronics beats music braeburn capital filemaker inc acquisitions anobit authentec inc beats electronics beats music cue emagic fingerworks intrinsity invisage technologies lala next nothing real metaio pa semi primesense shazam siri spotsetter texture topsy related advertising 1984 think different get a mac ipods product red campus park design idg typography book didi chuxing history codenames community criticism litigation fbiapple encryption dispute ios app approvals apple music festival welcome to macintosh 2008 documentary artistic depictions of steve jobs original programs distributed by apple book category portal authority control worldcat identities gnd 78451875 lccn n2010039603 nkc ph730192 viaf 184460395 