Apple seeds iOS and iPadOS 26.5 release candidates to developers

Apple’s latest iPhone and iPad software is basically done. On May 4, Apple pushed the release candidate builds of iOS 26.5 and iPadOS 26.5 to developers, which is usually the last stop before the public version ships. The big reason people care is Messages. Apple is finally turning on end-to-end encryption for RCS chats with Android phones, which fixes one of the biggest privacy gaps left after RCS support first arrived on iPhone. ### What is a release candidate? A release candidate is Apple saying, more or less, “this is the build we expect to ship unless something breaks.” It’s not a teaser beta anymore. Apple’s developer releases page lists iOS 26.5 RC and iPadOS 26.5 RC as arriving on May 4, both with build number 23F75, one week after beta 4. That timing usually means a public launch is close. ### Why is RCS encryption the real story? Because RCS fixed some old SMS problems, but not the biggest trust problem. When Apple added RCS support to Messages, iPhone and Android users got better media, typing indicators, read receipts, and modern group chat behavior. But those chats still didn’t get the same end-to-end protection people expect from iMessage. In iOS 26.5, RCS messaging is included, even if Apple still labels it beta. ### What does “end-to-end encrypted” change? It means the content of a message is meant to stay readable only to the people in the conversation, not the carrier or service moving it around. That’s been standard for iMessage for years, but cross-platform chats were the awkward exception. So this update matters less as a flashy new feature and more as a cleanup of a security mismatch Apple had been living with. ### How do we know Apple built real support? Apple’s developer docs now expose an RCS configuration property called `supportsEndToEndEncryption`, available starting in iOS and iPadOS 26.5 beta. That sounds small, but it’s the tell. Apple didn’t just toggle a server-side switch in release notes — it added system-level hooks so software can check whether requests. ### Why now? Because the standard finally caught up. In 2025, the GSMA said the latest RCS specifications add end-to-end encryption using MLS — Messaging Layer Security — and both Apple and Google said they would support it. Apple couldn’t really ship interoperable encrypted RCS before the cross-platform spec existed. Now it does, so the pieces are lining up. ### Didn’t this already show up before? Sort of — and that’s why this RC matters. The feature appeared during iOS 26.4 beta testing, then was removed before that version shipped. 9to5Mac notes Apple is now explicitly keeping encrypted RCS in the final shipping version of iOS 26.5, even though the feature remains marked beta. So this looks less like a rumor and more like Apple finally committing. ### Is this every RCS chat on day one? Probably not. The catch is that both sides and their messaging services need to support the encrypted version of RCS. Apple can add its side in iOS 26.5, but the real-world experience will still depend on the Android app and network path involved. That’s why Apple’s API checks whether the service supports encryption at all. ### Bottom line This update is Apple closing a very obvious gap. RCS made iPhone-to-Android texting feel newer, but it still wasn’t as private as iMessage. iOS 26.5 doesn’t make the green-bubble fight disappear — but it does make those chats a lot less exposed, and that’s the part that actually matters.