Apple quietly shipped a second release candidate of iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 on May 8, pushing a fresh build (23F77) out to developers and public beta testers just days after the first RC. It’s the sort of last-minute touch-up Apple often makes when the first candidate still needs fixes — expect bug patches, not flashy new menus.
What’s inside this RC
The headline additions were previewed in earlier betas and show up here in near-final form. The biggest user-facing changes are concentrated in Messages and Maps, with a handful of small quality-of-life tweaks and a new Pride wallpaper to match Apple’s watch band release.
End-to-end encrypted RCS
Perhaps the most consequential change: iOS 26.5 brings end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhones and Android phones. Apple’s release notes call the feature a beta and make clear it will "roll out over time" and only work with supported carriers. That means availability will vary by region and network operator.
On iPhones, the RCS E2EE option appears in Messages settings and — per beta notes — can be toggled by users; some reports indicate Apple will enable it by default but leave the switch available. There are caveats: carriers must support the encrypted RCS stacks, and third-party services like certain VPN clients have already been flagged as causing hiccups in cross-platform RCS sessions.
Maps gets Suggested Places and ads
Apple Maps gains a Suggested Places section that recommends nearby spots based on your recent searches and local trends. Alongside that comes the platform’s first taste of advertising: local ads will be labeled and can appear in Maps search results and Suggested Places. Apple is positioning this as a small-business-friendly product, similar to ads in the App Store, but it’s also an explicit effort to monetize Maps’ local discovery features.
Smaller but handy changes
- When you plug an Apple accessory like the Magic Keyboard into an iPhone via USB‑C, the device may automatically pair over Bluetooth as well.
- The Transfer to Android flow gets more granular: you can choose to move all media, a year’s worth, or just the last 30 days of message attachments.
- Apple Books adds a Trophies and Medals feature that rewards listening and reading habits.
- A new Pride luminance wallpaper pairs with Apple’s Pride watch band.
There are also hints of compliance tweaks for Europe under the Digital Markets Act — things like broader accessory compatibility have appeared in 26.5 betas and may land in the final release.
How to test it (and when most people will see it)
Registered developers and public beta participants can download the RC via Settings > General > Software Update. Release-candidate builds are meant to be the public release version, but Apple will ship revised RCs if lingering bugs pop up; that’s what happened here.
Industry trackers expect a public launch soon — likely next week — as Apple winds down iOS 26 maintenance and shifts focus toward iOS 27 and WWDC in June. If you want a deeper look at the beta history or earlier feature notes, Apple’s earlier developer beta coverage and the public beta summary walk through what appeared in previous builds, and a separate note drills into the encrypted RCS rollout specifics (/news/ios-26-5-rc-encrypted-rcs-messages).
Why it matters
Two small shifts here could have outsized effects. First, E2EE for cross‑platform RCS narrows the privacy gap between iMessage and Android messaging — but only if carriers and apps cooperate. Second, ads in Maps turn a convenience feature into a commercial surface, which will change how local discovery looks and feels over time.
If you’re a regular beta user, keep an eye on battery and VPN behavior after installing; test participants have already flagged interactions that may affect RCS. For everyone else, the coming public release will be the first real chance to see whether Apple fixed the bugs it found in RC1 — or if RC2 was just another quick touch-up before rollout.
