<\/p>\n
While rumours around Apple’s latest big update, iOS 27, are flying fast and loose, the company last week released a new release candidate (RC) for iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5. As you may understand from the RC label, the update is currently only available to developers and public beta testers but is expected to be rolled out to the general public soon as well.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
The stable version of iOS<\/a> 26.5 is expected to be released this week. We do not currently have a confirmed release date for the update, but the new update could potentially arrive today, i.e. Monday.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple’s big Siri features and any other AI features that you may be expecting will most likely not be arriving with iOS 26.5. Instead, these features are expected to come with the iOS 27 update that will be unveiled at WWDC in June and arrive with the new iPhones in September.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n However, the update is likely to come with three major updates:<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple first added end-to-end encryption (E2EE) for RCS messages between iPhone and Android during the iOS 26.4 beta update. However, the feature was removed during the stable build of the update.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The feature is expected to be limited to supported carriers at launch and could roll out in a phased manner.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n The presence of E2EE encryption means that messages between supported iOS and Android devices are secured in a way that only the sender and recipient can read them and cannot be read by any other third party, including Apple.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n Apple is also expected to add a new Suggested Places feature with iOS 26.5 that will provide recommendations to users based on their location and recent search history.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n This feature will coincide with ads coming to Apple Maps. The company has already confirmed that ads are coming to Apple Maps and it is likely that they could begin with the iOS 26.5 update.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n With the new update, Apple will allow companies in the US and Canada to place their ads in the search results and at the top of the Suggested Places section.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n “Ads on Maps will appear when users search in Maps<\/a>, and can appear at the top of a user’s search results based on relevance, as well as at the top of a new Suggested Places experience in Maps, which will display recommendations based on what’s trending nearby, the user’s recent searches, and more,” Apple said earlier this year.<\/p>\n<\/div>\niOS 26.5 features:<\/h2>\n
RCS messages:<\/h2>\n
Suggested Places:<\/h2>\n