Apple has today released iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 to the public, bringing end-to-end encryption to RCS messages for supported carriers, a new "suggested places" feature when performing a search in Apple Maps, and a new "Pride Luminance" wallpaper.
Accessibility Changes for Blind, Deaf Blind, and Low Vision Users
Resolved Bugs
Our experience is that the following accessibility bug has been resolved in iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5:
Release Notes
iOS 26.5
This update introduces support for end-to-end encrypted RCS (beta) messaging and a downloadable Pride Luminance wallpaper, along with enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPhone
This update includes the following enhancements:
- End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging (beta) in Messages is available with supported carriers and will roll out over time. For more information visit: https://support.apple.com/109526
- Pride Luminance wallpaper that dynamically refracts a spectrum of colors, is available for download
- Suggested Places in Maps displays recommendations based on what's trending nearby and your recent searches
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit: https://support.apple.com/100100 Some features may not be available in all regions or on all iPhone models. To learn more, please visit: https://apple.com/ios/feature-availability/ Software updates, like this one, add new features and improvements that may affect performance and/or battery life. To learn more, please visit: https://support.apple.com/125039
iPadOS 26.5
This update introduces a downloadable Pride Luminance wallpaper, along with enhancements, bug fixes, and security updates for your iPad.
This update includes the following enhancements:
- Pride Luminance wallpaper that dynamically refracts a spectrum of colors, is available for download
- Suggested Places in Maps displays recommendations based on what's trending nearby and your recent searches
For information on the security content of Apple software updates, please visit: https://support.apple.com/100100 Some features may not be available in all regions or on all iPad models. To learn more, please visit: https://apple.com/ios/feature-availability/ Software updates, like this one, add new features and improvements that may affect performance and/or battery life. To learn more, please visit: https://support.apple.com/125039
How to Update
iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 are available via Over-the-Air Update (Settings > General > Software Update), via Finder on a Mac with macOS Catalina or later, or via iTunes on a PC or Mac with macOS Mojave or earlier.
Before updating, we strongly recommend making a full and complete backup of your device (either locally or in iCloud, depending on personal preference). This will ensure that, in the unlikely event that something goes wrong during the update process, you will have a current backup on hand in case a device restore becomes necessary. Also, if using OTA update, we recommend plugging your device into a power source for the duration of the download/installation process, so as to prevent the unlikely event of your battery going dead during the update.
Comments
VO and notification
Well it looks like apple will not fix this but within this iOS. Hope next will do so. As we say in Chicago with the bears and cubs, wait until next year. Long live cats.
Everything looks good on both my devices
Everything looks good on my iPhone 15 and my iPhone SE third generation. I updated both of them today.
I hope iOS 27 actually fixes a few more bugs
That’s it for 26.5; several bugs that have plagued me for a year still haven't been fixed. Some of these bugs are only encountered by specific users. For example, when using the Simplified Chinese voice, "Speak Screen" gets inexplicably interrupted, which is truly frustrating—I often have to be interrupted three or four times just to read a single article. If it were just the interruptions, that would be one thing, but the more serious issue is that VoiceOver also frequently skips content at random. It might skip the first few words of a sentence, the last few, or even an entire paragraph. I don't know if you can understand how much distress this causes based on my description.
so far, so good
I updated all of my devices yesterday, and at least so far, there haven't been any issues. The only issue I still have is that if I use American Siri voice 4 on my iPhone 16, it doesn't use the same voice on my apple watch ultra 3 no matter how I try to force it to happen. My watch uses an older, compressed version of the voice, and this has been going on since I first got my new watch all the way back in October. I know it's meaningless in the grand scheme of life, but especially since I'm pretty sure I remember my original apple watch using the better quality siri voice 4, the fact that this newer watch refuses to do so baffles me. If I use Irish male siri, the voice on my phone and watch is the same, or if it isn't, at least the difference isn't as jarringly obvious. Still, for day-to-day functionality, everything is working about as well as it ever does, which is good enough for me.
Hello.
How long does It take for the current IOs to install. Thanks.
Update time
The time it takes to download, prepare, and install an iOS update depends largely on factors like your device hardware specifications, network connection, and what version of the operating system you're updating from, as well as Apple's current server load. That said, you can continue to use your device while the update downloads and prepares; it only becomes unusable when the update is installing, which should only take a few minutes.
Been having some issues with Internet connectivity on both devic
Since I’ve updated iOS 26.5 on both of my devices, I’ve been having issues with Internet connection. So specifically even going to this website has been a lot of cannot load the page because good night connect to the server. The other issue that I’ve been having is I can start to watch a video on YouTube and then just stop. We’re in the middle of playing the video. It will take a really long time to come back on if it comes back on at all I’m not really sure why this is. I don’t have Wi-Fi in my house to be able to test if this happens on the Wi-Fi connection or not, but I will definitely have to check on that. My iPhone SE is using my iPhone 15 hotspot and my iPhone 15 is having the same issues as my SE Internet. I’m not sure if this is something on Apple‘s end that needs to be fixed or something of it is specific to my connection of where I am. I have done anything different. As far as I update everything I always do over there updates. It’s been kind of a strange issue hopefully hopefully we’ll get fixed soon.
partiality with the siri voices.
I wanted to ask why there seems to be partiality from Apple regarding Siri voices. For example, the American Siri voices use the newer, higher-quality 64 MB versions, which work well with VoiceOver. However, the UK Siri voices and other regional options still use the older versions, which do not work as reliably or sound as natural. Why is there this difference in quality and compatibility between the American and UK Siri voices?
Basic
Most company take care of their area and later fix others. Perhaps Apple does so without even considering they are doing so? Is a theory. Long live cats.
I have multiple bugs
Hi, not sure if this issue with VO started with ios 18, but in the notes app, if I make correction to spelling of a word after dictating a note, VO will not read the corrected word properly and say it in an odd way with the corrected part of the word read separately. I hope this makes sense. Not sure how to explain it.
New bug with ios 26.5 I've noticed that all the doctors in my contacts, for the "Dr." VO will say "Drive E pause 275" and the name of the doctor instead of saying doctor so and so.
Not sure if anyone else uses Korean on here, for a really long time, in the notes app, when I type something in english and Korean, the VO voice will not automatically switch between different voices to read both languages when the keyboard is in English and will only read everything using the Korean voice when the keyboard is set to Korean. This is really annoying because English read by the Korean voice makes it difficult to understand what I wrote in English.
One more bug that is still not fixed with ios 26.5 that I've noticed is that putting the phone in silent mode does not turn off the lock sound, which is supposed to turn off when in silent mode....
Anyone else experience these issues? I have an iPhone 14 plus.
I don’t see it with keyboards
I don’t see it with keyboard, but the auto language detection switching thing is never really worked right. Even if you turn off the setting as an honor. The boys supposed to automatically switch would it to other language. I don’t think it’s quite the same thing.