iOS 26.5 was launched earlier this month with many new features for users. Here are the new iOS 26.5 features that were added to three popular iPhone apps.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n Apple’s Messages app gets a significant upgrade in iOS 26.5 for RCS messaging.<\/p>\n RCS Green Bubble is the best messaging alternative for friends, offering many iMessage-like features that SMS doesn’t support.<\/p>\n And in iOS 26.5, Apple has added end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging in beta. Per Apple’s fine print:<\/p>\n End-to-end encryption is in beta and not available for all devices or carriers. Conversations labeled as encrypted are end-to-end encrypted, so messages cannot be read when sent between devices.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n For more details on end-to-end encryption, and to see which carriers support this feature, check out this compatibility article here.<\/p>\n Apple Maps gets a useful feature in the Search screen in iOS 26.5.<\/p>\n ‘Suggested Places’ is a new feature that recommends two places every time you tap the search field.<\/p>\n These suggestions are based on a few different factors:<\/p>\n I’ve really enjoyed this feature so far, as it seems like a perfect addition to the search screen. It doesn’t get in the way or clutter other parts of the app, and is a great search aid.<\/p>\n Finally, Apple says that one of these ‘Suggested Places’ slots may include promoted places (for example, advertisements). But I’m still hopeful that this feature will be an overall positive one.<\/p>\n The App Store has added a new option for in-app subscriptions.<\/p>\n Apple gives developers flexibility in what subscription plans they offer, but the most popular are monthly and annual plans. Monthly is easily the most common, but annual plans usually come with good discounts.<\/p>\n With iOS 26.5, Apple began offering a new subscription option that is a mix of sorts between these popular plans.<\/p>\n This is an annual subscription divided into 12 monthly payments. Or as Apple says, a “monthly with a 12-month commitment” plan. Presumably, this plan could entice more users to sign up for a year of service and receive the discount while avoiding the large upfront fee. <\/p>\n There’s one big star though: it’s currently available everywhere in the world except the US and Singapore.<\/p>\n \t\t\t FTC: We use auto affiliate links that generate income.<\/em> More.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" iOS 26.5 was launched earlier this month with many new features for users. Here are the new iOS 26.5 features that were added to three popular iPhone apps. #1: message Apple’s Messages app gets a significant upgrade in iOS 26.5 for RCS messaging. RCS Green Bubble is the best messaging alternative for friends, offering many<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95675,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[3567,1633,2265,2251,2653,634],"class_list":["post-152471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-devotionals","tag-adds","tag-apps","tag-features","tag-ios","tag-iphone","tag-popular"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=152471"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":152472,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/152471\/revisions\/152472"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95675"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=152471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=152471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christiancorner.us\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=152471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}#1: message<\/h2>\n
![\"Messages](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2023\/12\/iMessage-antitrust.jpg?quality=82&strip=all\")
<\/figure>\n\n
\n#2: Apple Maps<\/h2>\n
![\"apple](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/07\/apple-maps-ios-26.jpg?quality=82&strip=all\")
<\/figure>\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2026\/03\/ios-26-4-maps-suggested-places-search.jpg?quality=82&strip=all\")
<\/figure>\n
\n#3: App Store<\/h2>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/6\/2025\/11\/App-Store-awards-25.jpg?quality=82&strip=all\")
<\/figure>\nBest iPhone Accessories<\/h3>\n
![\"Add](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-dark.png\"){kind=icon}
\n\t\t\t![\"Add](\"https:\/\/9to5mac.com\/wp-content\/themes\/ninetofive\/dist\/images\/google-preferred-source-badge-light.png\"){kind=icon}
<\/p><\/div>\n