Apple Account
Earlier this year, we reported that “Apple ID” would be renamed to “Apple Account,” and this change has now been officially announced.
Update (2024-06-18): Adam Engst:
Apple ID and Apple Account aren’t precisely parallel, since an Apple ID was primarily an identifier—it’s an email address—whereas an Apple Account would have both a username and a password.
The real problem comes when tech writers document features across multiple versions of Apple’s operating systems. We’ll probably use both terms for a while before slowly standardizing on the new term. Blame Apple if you see awkward sentences like “Continuity features require that you be logged into the same Apple Account (Apple ID in pre-2024 operating systems).” Or maybe writers will compress further to “Continuity features require that you be logged into the same Apple Account/ID.”
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"a consistent sign-on experience"
Where was it called an Apple Account, and why was it called that there if you called it Apple ID everywhere else? This sounds like a chicken and egg excuse.
Change is often annoying, but change for no discernible reason is just dumb.
@Kevin What’s odd to me is that they had started using “Apple Account” to mean your Apple gift card balance, as distinct from Apple Cash and Apple ID. Now it just means everything, including, I guess, the “developer account” parts?
My wild guess as a former communications person is that Apple is actively trying to avoid the “ID” moniker, which is redolent of tracking, profiling, and harassment — as in “identity checks” by the police and “showing your ID” at a bar to prove your age.
As a user, I feel that “ID” is utterly benign in this context, but I am sure someone somewhere felt that the faintest whiff of officialdom was best avoided. “Account,” by virtue of being used everywhere in the industry in spite of its own inherent ugliness, melts nicely into the background.
