The developer versions seven days ago had already indicated that not much time would pass before the general release. With the exception of iOS and iPadOS 26.5, the build numbers already ended in “a”, which corresponded to the status shortly before the release candidates. The RC versions in question are now available via the developer area; there was no longer a fifth beta. This makes it possible to estimate exactly when Apple is preparing the release. There is usually a week between the RCs and the final version – so the time will come on Monday or Tuesday of next week. 26.5 is primarily a maintenance update, but also includes some functional changes.
Known innovations in 26.5
Apple is preparing advertising in the maps app for users in the USA. With the new “Apple Business” platform, the company has laid the foundations for corresponding bookings, and the starting signal for Maps Ads is expected to take place in the coming weeks. So far, Apple has not commented on when the advertisements will appear in other countries.
With the fourth beta, Apple also presented new functions related to app subscriptions. In addition to monthly payment and annual subscriptions, there is now a third option: annual commitment with monthly payment (see message).
In this country, iOS 26.5 brings, among other things, faster coupling of third-party accessories and “notification forwarding” to send notifications directly to third-party smartwatches. End-to-end encryption of RCS messages is still in testing, but it is unknown whether it will be enabled with 26.5 (update: Feature is activated for 26.5)
The current betas
Finally, as always, the well-known list of currently available beta versions. As is usual with a beta, there is a letter at the end of the build number that indicates how advanced Apple currently considers the development cycle to be. This time it started with “h”, since Beta 4 it has only been “a” and “b”. If the letter is completely missing, it is an RC or the final version
| system | Build number | Published |
| macOS 26.5 RC | 25F71 | May 4, 2026 |
| iOS 26.5 RC | 23F75 | May 4, 2026 |
| iPadOS 26.5 RC | 23F75 | May 4, 2026 |
| watchOS 26.5 RC | 23T570 | May 4, 2026 |
| tvOS 26.5 RC | 23L471 | May 4, 2026 |
| visionOS 26.5 RC | 23O471 | May 4, 2026 |
