iOS 26.5 RC keyboard bug misplaces Spanish tildes, users report shifted accents
- Apple’s iOS 26.5 Release Candidate appears to have changed accent-key placement on the Spanish keyboard, with users reporting wrong characters when adding tildes. - The clearest example is the “o” key — people used to flicking right for “ó” now hit “ö” instead after years of muscle memory. - Because RC builds usually ship publicly within days, Apple has a short window to revert the layout before the wider iPhone rollout.
The iPhone keyboard is doing something tiny and maddening in iOS 26.5 RC. On the Spanish keyboard, at least some accent options appear to have moved. That sounds trivial, but it hits one of the most automatic things people do on a phone — long-press a vowel, flick, keep typing. When that motion changes without warning, your hands keep doing the old move and the wrong character lands on screen. (applesfera.com) ### What actually changed? The reported change is not that accents disappeared. They’re still there. The problem is placement. On the Spanish keyboard, users say the accented option for some letters is no longer where long-time iPhone users expect it to be. The most cited example is the letter “o,” where “ó” appears to have shifted left, so a motion that used to select the accented vowel now selects “ö” instead. (applesfera.com) ### Why does that feel so broken? Because this is muscle memory, not conscious typing. Most people who add accents manually are not looking at the popup every time. They hold, flick, release. That routine gets repeated dozens of times a day. Change one position in that chain and the keyboard s(applesfera.com) up as “öxido,” “comiö,” and “etcëtera” instead of their normal Spanish forms. (applesfera.com) ### Is this a bug or a redesign? Right now it looks more like an unintended layout change than a feature Apple has announced. Apple’s public-facing notes for iOS 26.5 talk about end-to-end encrypted RCS in beta, a Pride wallpaper, Maps suggestions, plus generic bug fixes and security updates. (applesfera.com)ug, but it strongly suggests this was not meant to be a headline change. (9to5mac.com) ### Why is the RC part important? An RC — release candidate — is basically Apple saying, “this is close to the version we plan to ship.” Apple seeded iOS 26.5 RC to developers on May 4, 2026, and coverage around the release points to a public rollout likely arriving the following week if nothing major breaks. So the timing matters. (9to5mac.com)it’s serious. (macrumors.com) ### Who gets hit by this? Spanish speakers who type accents manually on iPhone — especially people using the Spain keyboard layout — look like the immediate group. And this is the kind of bug that can feel bigger than it sounds because it touches everyday messaging, notes, email, and search. One misplaced popup option can turn normal writing into constant correction work. A(macrumors.com)and Latin American layouts, so the exact scope may depend on which one is active. (applesfera.com) ### Couldn’t autocorrect just fix it? Sometimes, but that misses the point. Not everyone wants autocorrect cleaning up after them, and not every mistaken diacritic gets corrected cleanly. A dieresis and an acute accent are different characters with different uses. If the keyboard keeps inserti(applesfera.com)d. (applesfera.com) ### Has the iPhone keyboard had complaints before? Yes — iOS 26 has already drawn broader complaints about keyboard behavior, including reports from users who felt typing accuracy got worse after earlier builds. That does not confirm the Spanish-accent issue is widespread, but it does mean this new complaint lands in a context where the keyboard was already under scrutiny. (forums.macrumors.com) ### Bottom line? This is a small UI shift with outsized consequences. If Apple changes it back before the public iOS 26.5 release, most people will never notice. If Apple doesn’t, millions of Spanish-language typing habits could suddenly feel wrong for no good reason. (applesfera.com)
