Apple released another software update–and if you’re concerned about privacy and security, you should download it now.
iOS 26.5 introduces an array of new features, including encrypted messaging between Android and Apple devices and feature updates for Maps. It dropped close to two months after iOS 26.4, which introduced new emojis, and functional features like Live Translation.
While iOS 26.5 isn’t as substantial, it does include a few key updates that users have been asking for. Perhaps the most notable is encrypted messaging.
In an announcement, Apple noted that end-to-end encryption has begun rolling out in beta for Rich Communication Services (RCS) with non-Apple devices. RCS is the cross-platform messaging that has come to replace short message service–or SMS. In other words, it’s the tech behind the green bubbles an iPhone user sees when they text someone with an Android device.
Apple said it worked together with Google to roll out this feature, and although the update won’t eliminate that green bubble problem, Apple noted that users will be able to see that their RCS messages with Android users are encrypted thanks to a “lock” icon in their chats. End-to-end encryption means that the messages can’t be read by unauthorised third parties–indeed, not even Apple itself–when sent between devices. It is available for Android users with the latest version of Google Messages, and for iPhone users with iOS 26.5 and supported carriers.
There are other updates, too: iOS 26.5 makes a new wallpaper, called “Pride Luminance,” available for download. It is meant to refract a spectrum of colours. The software update also includes a change to Apple Maps, which will display recommendations based on recent searches and local trends.
Crucially, the update offers more than 50 vulnerability patches. Apple is scant on details as to what the issues were that prompted the update, but a post detailing the software’s security content includes, among other things, more than 10 updates for WebKit, the browser engine that supports Safari. The impact statement on one of the WebKit fixes reads, for example, “processing maliciously crafted web content may disclose sensitive user information.”
iOS 26.5 is compatible with iPhone 11 and newer devices, according to Apple, which also released a version for iPads. The update comes less than a month before Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference at which the tech giant is expected to unveil iOS 27, which could include some major upgrades for Siri. – Inc./TNS
