Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 Betas to Developers - MacRumors
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Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 Betas to Developers

Apple today seeded revised first betas of upcoming iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 updates to developers for testing purposes, with the software coming four days after Apple seeded the initial betas.

iOS 26
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. It's not clear why Apple has seeded new beta updates, but there may be a bug fix that couldn't wait for the second beta.

iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 do not include new Siri capabilities, suggesting any ‌Siri‌ updates are being held until iOS 27. The Maps app has a Suggested Places feature for recommending locations to visit nearby based on trends and recent searches, plus Apple is laying the groundwork for ads.

Apple is again testing end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and Android users. Apple tested the feature in iOS 26.4, but removed it before the update launched.

In the European Union, Apple is testing proximity pairing, notification forwarding, and Live Activities for third-party wearables like earbuds and smartwatches.

More detail on what's new in iOS 26.5 can be found in our beta 1 features guide.

Related Roundups: iOS 26, iPadOS 26
Related Forum: iOS 26

Top Rated Comments

1 week ago

Not true at all. Also, we are almost 20 years into iOS’ existence, why do we keep expecting hundreds upon hundreds of features to be added every single time iOS gets updated? Like holy heck. iOS is mature at this point. Accept it.
Half of the people want the next release to have no new features and only bug fixes. Others will only be happy if there’s a lot of new shiny stuff. On any given day, some people can be in different halves.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1 week ago

I know of at least 1 reason. For me, the second iOS 26.5 beta 1 download, it instantly broke my Face ID on my iPhone 17 Pro max. I reported the bug and next day heard back form Apple. I looked online and excepted more people to be complaining about it, but other than me, haven’t seen other reports 🤷‍♂️
You are so correct I thought I would see a lot more complaints about this as well. I thought I was the only one. In order for me to use my Face ID I would have to keep on restarting the phone over and over again, so yeah this must’ve been the fix for at least one of them.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1 week ago
Man I’m starting to wonder if new Siri is ever coming
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
1 week ago

This truly is the purest vision of iOS 26 that Apple has ever released.

But seriously, good ol’ Apple secrecy strikes again.
What are you talking about?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Rafagon Avatar
1 week ago
Revised but still beta 1?
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Bones402 Avatar
1 week ago
iOS 26 was a big old nothingburger, in regards of Apple Innovation. And a complete failure, in terms of promised features.
Score: 1 Votes (Like | Disagree)