Apple is rolling out iOS 26.5 to iPhone users, following several beta releases over the past few weeks.
The software doesn’t include the AI-powered Siri revamp many people were waiting for, but Apple still added a few meaningful upgrades.
The release follows iOS 26.4, which introduced a long list of smaller hidden additions and quality-of-life improvements. Here are the features worth checking out in iOS 26.5.
End-to-end RCS encryption
Your iPhone can now send a fully encrypted text to an Android phone. That sounds obvious in 2026, but it genuinely wasn’t possible until iOS 26.5 landed.
For years, the moment a blue bubble conversation turned green, all that iMessage encryption vanished.
The new RCS encryption support closes that gap, though there’s a catch worth knowing about. Both people need to be on a carrier that has updated to the latest RCS standard. So if your friend’s carrier is slow to roll out support, the lock icon won’t appear yet.
The feature is on by default, tucked into the Messages section of Settings if you want to confirm it or turn it off. A small padlock shows up on encrypted threads.
What Europe Gets That You Don’t
If you’re in the EU, iOS 26.5 opens up something Apple has kept locked down for years. Third-party earbuds can now use one-tap proximity pairing, previously available only to AirPods.
Smartwatches that aren’t Apple Watch can now receive interactive iPhone notifications, not just the read-only kind.
Live Activities, those persistent little widgets showing your Uber or sports score, can now appear on non-Apple wearables, too. Accessory makers have to build the support first, so availability will vary.
The trade-off with notifications is that you can forward them to only one device at a time. Switch notifications to a third-party smartwatch and your Apple Watch stops getting them. That’s presumably intentional on Apple’s part.
A Few Smaller Things Worth Knowing
Maps now suggests places based on your recent searches and what’s trending around you. Apple also quietly laid the groundwork for ads in Maps, though nothing is showing up yet.
If you’re switching from iPhone to Android, there’s a new option during setup to choose how far back your message attachments transfer: everything, the last year, or just the past 30 days.
Apple Books has some new award tracking features, likely for year-end wrap-up summaries. There’s a new Inuktitut keyboard layout.
The update ships with patches for more than 50 security vulnerabilities, none of which appear to have been exploited in the wild, though that’s still a solid reason to update sooner rather than later.
Apple added a Pride Luminance wallpaper that pairs with the matching Apple Watch face and band, which were released around the same time. It does the shifting color spectrum thing Apple tends to go for with Pride designs.
To grab the update, go to Settings, then General, then Software Update. If you are on an older device that cannot run iOS 26, Apple also shipped maintenance updates for iOS 15, 16, and 18 today.
