Apple Seeds 3rd iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 Betas to Developers
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OS 26.5 Beta 3 is here! Discover hidden changes, including Apple Maps 'Suggested Places,' RCS end-to-end encryption testing, & more.
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iOS 26.5 beta 2 is here, but is light on new features
Macworld The 26.4 updates brought with them a number of improvements across the various operating systems and Apple’s included apps. But they didn’t bring the expected, long overdue improvements to Siri: A new foundation model,
The iOS 26.5 beta brings back an option to enable end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging on your device. When Apple brought RCS messaging to iPhones with iOS 18, one feature the messaging protocol was missing was end-to-end encryption, and iOS 26.5 could finally bring this privacy protection to your iPhone.
Apple releases iOS 26.5 Beta 3 with a modem update and smoother animations; the download is about 1.78 GB, and some CarPlay issues remain.
The encrypted messaging update is the most important change and could arrive as soon as iOS 26.5. Apple announced in the release notes for the iOS 26.4 developer beta that it was being tested, adding, “This feature is not shipping in this release and will be available to customers in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26 releases.”
Apple today seeded the second betas of upcoming iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming two weeks after Apple released updated first betas. Registered developers can download the betas from the Settings app on the iPhone or iPad by going to the General section and selecting Software Update.
The encrypted messaging update is the most important change and could arrive as soon as iOS 26.5. Apple announced in the release notes for the iOS 26.4 developer beta that it was being tested, adding, “This feature is not shipping in this release and will be available to customers in future iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and watchOS 26 releases.”