iOS 26.5 RC 2 Released Ahead of General Availability

Apple has issued a new release candidate (RC) build for iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5, which is now available to developers and public beta testers.

iOS 26.5 RC2 is now available for testing.

iOS 26.5 is likely to be released to all users next week. But, before that, Apple is releasing one last pre-release build today.

iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 RC 2 are now available. The previous RC build was version 23F75, and the new one is 23F77.

What may have changed in between RC updates? Don’t expect any new functionality or UI changes.

Rather, Apple most likely released a new RC due to issues uncovered during the RC testing process that needed to be fixed before the public release.

Even while every RC build is meant to be the final software version that is shipped to all customers (thus the name ‘Release Candidate’), it is not uncommon for Apple to ship a revised RC for additional testing.

When iOS 26.5 becomes available, it will offer new iPhone features such as RCS end-to-end encrypted texting, a ‘Suggested Places’ feature in Apple Maps, a Pride Luminance wallpaper, and more.

Topics #Apple update #iOS 26.5 #iOS 26.5 RC 2 #iOS release candidate #iPadOS 26.5 #iPhone software update #RCS encrypted texting