iOS 18.5 RC Released: Discover the Exciting New Features Coming Soon!

This evening, Apple unveiled the Release Candidate versions of iOS 18.5 and iPadOS 18.5. These versions represent the final beta iteration and will be released as-is if no significant bugs are found in the upcoming days. Unless there are major issues, the public rollout is expected to occur next week. Additionally, Apple has released the RC versions of macOS 15.5, which includes various bug fixes, and watchOS 11.5, which introduces some new features. Versions of tvOS 18.5 and visionOS 2.5 were also launched, though without any notable changes.

The update is relatively minor, as evidenced by the list of new features shared by Apple this evening. As mentioned yesterday, iOS 18.5 introduces a new Pride Harmony wallpaper that matches the new Pride band for the Apple Watch. There is also a small update to the Screen Time feature, which now sends a notification to a parent’s iPhone when the passcode is used on a child’s device. Additionally, the update allows the use of an iPhone to authorize purchases made through the TV app on third-party devices. iOS 18.5 also supports satellite features for certain mobile carriers on the iPhone 13. Finally, Apple has fixed a bug that caused a black screen to appear on the Apple Vision Pro app. It’s worth noting that although it wasn’t listed in the announcement, iOS 18.5 includes improved accessibility to some settings in the Mail app, which was spotted last month.