{"id":229524,"date":"2026-03-31T05:47:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-31T09:47:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T06:00:14","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T10:00:14","slug":"ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/31\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS 26.5 beta contains bad news for Siri and Apple Maps \u2014 but there&#8217;s a major privacy bonus for iPhone messaging"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/phones\/iphone\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging\">iOS 26.5 beta contains bad news for Siri and Apple Maps \u2014 but there&#8217;s a major privacy bonus for iPhone messaging<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/phones\/iphone\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging\">https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/phones\/iphone\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-03-31 05:47:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.techradar.com\">www.techradar.com<\/a><\/p>\n<ul id=\"elk-94a97705-7ec1-47ef-9723-a4d84452e21e\">\n<li><strong>The first iOS 26.5 beta is out now<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It includes end-to-end encryption for RCS messages between Android and iPhone<\/strong><\/li>\n<li><strong>It also lays the groundwork for the addition of ads in Apple Maps<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p id=\"elk-51728194-7a99-4c1c-931d-5c04ed552668\">The first iOS 26.5 beta has now landed for developers, but where most new versions of iOS are upgrades, this could almost be considered a downgrade in some ways.<\/p>\n<p>Notably, it sets the scene for ads to be added to Apple Maps, with code spotted by MacRumors that reads: &#8220;Maps may show local ads based on your approximate location, current search terms, or view of the map while you search.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p id=\"elk-51728194-7a99-4c1c-931d-5c04ed552668-2\">Thankfully, you won\u2019t be seeing any ads yet, but Apple plans to fully implement them this summer, so they are coming soon, and many people are likely to consider that a downgrade for Apple Maps.<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"article-continues-below block py-2 text-sm\">Article continues below <\/span><br \/>\n        <span class=\"\n            flex\n            after:content-[''] after:flex-1 after:ml-4 after:my-[0.7rem] after:border-t after:border-solid after:border-t-[#ccc]\n            before:content-[''] before:flex-1 before:mr-4 before:my-[0.7rem] before:border-t before:border-solid before:border-t-[#ccc]\n            font-article-heading pb-0 !text-base uppercase sm:text-sm font-bold\n        \"><br \/>\n            You may like<br \/>\n        <\/span><\/p>\n<p>Still, Apple Maps does have a desirable new feature too, with a new \u2018Suggested Places\u2019 section that will recommend places you might want to visit, based on what\u2019s trending nearby and what you\u2019ve searched for recently.<\/p>\n<p class=\"vanilla-image-block\" style=\"padding-top:56.17%;\">\n<p><span class=\"credit\" itemprop=\"copyrightHolder\">(Image credit: MacRumors)<\/span><\/p>\n<h2 id=\"end-to-end-encryption-is-back-3\">End-to-end encryption is back<\/h2>\n<p id=\"elk-de2c8b7d-3f27-4cd5-b7b2-512156d1f9aa\">The biggest upgrade in this beta, though, is arguably the re-enabling of end-to-end encryption for RCS messages between Android and iPhone. This feature actually previously appeared in the iOS 26.4 beta, but didn\u2019t launch with the finished version, so Apple is clearly still testing it.<\/p>\n<p>It remains to be seen whether it will be ready in time for the finished iOS 26.5 release, but it\u2019s an important upgrade that will help keep messages between these two platforms secure.<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s the bulk of what you\u2019ll find here, with sadly no Siri upgrades present. Siri\u2019s upgraded AI capabilities are long overdue at this point, and recent leaks also suggested that a standalone Siri chatbot could be coming soon, but none of that is present here, so we\u2019ll likely be waiting until iOS 27.<\/p>\n<p class=\"newsletter-form__strapline\">Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more.<\/p>\n<p>As for this&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.techradar.com\/phones\/iphone\/ios-26-5-beta-contains-bad-news-for-siri-and-apple-maps-but-theres-a-major-privacy-bonus-for-iphone-messaging\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>iOS 26.5 beta contains bad news for Siri and Apple Maps \u2014 but there&#8217;s a&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":229525,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net\/bwTxyroW5dP8bRKndyLwGb-2560-80.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[120],"tags":[69,77],"class_list":["post-229524","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-iphone","tag-ios","tag-ios-26"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229524"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=229524"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":229526,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/229524\/revisions\/229526"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/229525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=229524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=229524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=229524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}