The next iPhone software update, iOS 26.5, is likely to be one of the last major updates for the current cycle before iOS 27 arrives in September. Here’s when it’s coming and what’s in it.
The Critical New Messaging Feature: Secure RCS

The biggest update coming to iOS 26.5, arguably the one that makes this version so important, is the introduction of end-to-end encrypted messaging with RCS.

Those three letters, which stand for Rich Communication Services, are important because they mean that the encryption will work with messages sent to and from Android phones — they’re already encrypted between iPhones.

Apple is beta-testing this feature now — if you’re running the beta you can toggle end-to-end encryption on now — and while it hasn’t confirmed that it will go live when iOS 26.5 does, Apple has dropped a hint.

That’s because in iOS 26.4 it warned that it wasn’t shipping the feature until a “future software update” but that warning is absent from iOS 26.5 betas.