- iOS 26.5 could launch imminently, and it includes end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging
- It also includes Suggested Places in Apple Maps and a new wallpaper
- Later this year, with iOS 27, Apple Wallet might get support for custom passes
There are some big features coming to iOS this year, and some of them could arrive very soon. Apple has just released the first iOS 26.5 RC (Release Candidate) build, and in the changelog, the company has detailed three significant upgrades coming to your iPhone.
That build is a near-final version of the software, so its arrival means the finished version of iOS 26.5 could land in the next week or so, and it should be worth the wait, as one of the highlighted features is end-to-end encrypted RCS messaging, which has been a long time coming.
This basically adds full encryption when using the Messages app to communicate with Android users, so it’s a major security upgrade. That said, the feature will launch in beta initially, and Apple adds that it’s “available with supported carriers and will roll out over time.”
As well as that, this update also includes a Pride Luminance wallpaper that “dynamically refracts a spectrum of colors”, and Suggested Places will be added to Apple Maps, with this new section providing recommendations of trending spots nearby, as well as of things based on your recent searches.
A bigger feature is coming later
But while these certainly sound like promising features, I’m more excited about iOS 27, as that will reportedly add an Apple Wallet feature that lets you create custom passes.
This is something that was first rumored a while back, but now Mark Gurman at Bloomberg (via MacRumors) has provided more details on it.
Supposedly, this feature will be called ‘Create a Pass’, and it will let you scan the QR code on passes or tickets to add those to Apple Wallet. That means if you have something that includes a QR code but lacks native Apple Wallet support, it can easily be added.
But if there’s no QR code, you’ll still seemingly be able to create a custom pass instead. This will apparently work for tickets, memberships, gift cards, and more, and different types of passes will be assigned a different color, with blue being used for memberships, purple for events, and orange for all other types of passes. You’ll then be able to customize the text and images.
So, it sounds like, with this feature, physical cards could soon be a thing of the past. Already, most of my cards and tickets end up in Apple Wallet, and Create a Pass could allow a workaround for the few holdouts that don’t support it.
There’s no guarantee that this feature will arrive with iOS 27, but this report suggests it will. In which case, we should see it soon, as iOS 27 is likely to be announced at WWDC 2026 on June 8 — though it probably won’t be finished until September.
