Buried in the watchOS 26.5 release notes is something that should have Apple Watch owners with dual-SIM iPhones paying close attention.
Turns out, some of those watches were quietly sending regular SMS messages instead of iMessages, and nobody was getting a notification that anything had gone wrong. Your “sent as iMessage” was, at least some of the time, just… not.
That one bug fix alone makes this update worth installing, even if everything else in watchOS 26.5 reads like a routine housekeeping release.
The patch corrects the behavior so your watch correctly routes messages through iMessage when it should, rather than defaulting to SMS in the background without telling you.
The Workout Bug Nobody Was Talking About
There is also a fix for a Workout app issue that quietly disabled audio alerts whenever your paired iPhone wandered out of range during a session.
If you run or cycle without your phone and wonder why your watch stops speaking to you mid-workout, this was probably why. The update restores those alerts regardless of where your phone is sitting.
A Watch Face Built Around Light
On the more visible side of things, Apple added the Pride Luminance watch face, which plays with shifting colorful light effects rather than leaning on static design.
It has customization options and fits into Apple’s annual Pride Collection alongside new bands and wallpapers released around the same time.
The update also continues polishing watchOS 26’s major features: the Liquid Glass interface, Smart Stack, Workout Buddy, and the Notes app that arrived with this generation of software.
None of those get dramatic changes here, just the kind of quiet refinements that tend to make things feel a bit less rough around the edges.
Getting the Update on Your Wrist
Your Apple Watch needs to be paired with an iPhone running iOS 26 to be eligible. Before starting, charge your watch to at least 50% and keep it on the charger throughout the process.
On your iPhone, open the Watch app, go to General, then Software Update, and follow the prompts. Keep the phone on Wi-Fi while it downloads.
Given the SMS routing issue, anyone using a dual-SIM iPhone with their watch has a pretty concrete reason to stop waiting on this one.
