iOS 26.5 Just Dropped, and It Includes One Very Annoying New iPhone Change

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After keeping things low-key with iOS 26.3, Apple rolled out a sizable update for iOS 26.4—especially for Apple Music users. That app's UI now matches the art of the album you're checking out; you can use AI to generate new playlists, and find upcoming concerts by the artists you're listening to directly in the app. Combined with other new changes, like eight new emojis and the new "Urgent" section in Reminders, iOS 26.4 was actually quite a feature-filled update. iOS 26.5, on the other hand, is arguably another quiet one.

Don't expect any massive new features or changes here (despite some rumors to the contrary, Apple really does appear to be saving its AI Siri for the launch of iOS 27), but there are some interesting updates to call out. In my view, two features define this update: one good, one frustrating.

Apple Maps gets ads in iOS 26.5

It's official: Apple Maps is getting ads. It's part of Apple's push to introduce ads into more of its apps and services in order to boost its revenue. (What's a $4 trillion company to do?) These ads will appear when you search in Apple Maps, based on relevance, as well as at the top of a "Suggested Places" screen that is also new to iOS 26.5.

You should easily be able to distinguish between ads and suggested locations: Apple says it's placing a blue "Ad" icon on any paid location that appears in search or Suggested Places. It's possible these ads could even be useful, if they really are relevant: If you're looking for a specific type of food in a particular city, perhaps the top ad really is the way to go. On the other hand, the fact that it was paid to be up there could be a red flag.

The addition of ads isn't a shock: We first heard rumblings of this news last year, and Apple confirmed it last week. Because this is Apple, the company is assuring users that its ad placements take privacy into account, as the app "doesn’t know which stores, neighborhoods, or clinics you visit." When you interact with an ad, that data is tied to a "random identifier" that changes multiple times an hour, so theoretically, no one should be able to tie your ad interactions to you personally.

RCS end-to-end encryption is finally here

After months of testing, Apple officially rolled out end-to-end encryption for RCS—one of the last big limitations the protocol has on iOS. iPhone users should now be able to text their Android friends directly without leaving their messages out in the open in plain text. That's assuming, of course, their Android friends are also using a messaging app that supports encrypted RCS. At the moment, that largely means the most recent versions of Google Messages.

When Apple finally rolled out RCS support for iPhone, it was a true game-changer. Green bubble texts no longer need to be something to fear; now, group chats can function correctly, photos and videos can be sent in high resolution, and you can use read receipts outside of iMessage. But end-to-end encryption was missing, which made the experience just as insecure as SMS. Going forward, we can all message with a little more peace of mind.

You can quickly pair Magic Accessories to your iPhone

If you have one of Apple's "Magic" accessories, like a Magic Keyboard, you can quickly pair it to your iPhone in iOS 26.5. You can plug your iPhone into the accessory via USB-C to pair, as you do on macOS, rather than fiddling with Bluetooth settings. Once you do that, the accessory can quickly pair to your iPhone via Bluetooth, which should make switching devices easier.

There's a new "Pride Luminance" wallpaper in iOS 26.5

As part of the company's latest Pride collection, there's now a "Pride Luminance" wallpaper that refracts light and color. Apple says the design is two-fold: The radial design features rays of color that align with the hour, while a vertical design divies up the colors into sections.

You can now pay for annual subscriptions month-by-month (not available in the U.S.)

iOS 26.5's final new feature makes it a bit easier to stomach paying for an annual subscription—assuming you don't live in Singapore or the U.S. With this new update, you can now pay for annual subscriptions month-by-month. Instead of dropping $120 on an annual plan all at once, you could instead pay $10 per month. You're still locked in for the year, so you'll need to commit to 12 months of payments, but at least it feels like a monthly subscription to your wallet. However, despite being home to Apple HQ, the U.S. can't take advantage of this change yet. Hopefully, that'll come with iOS 26.6, or maybe iOS 27.