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Table of contents What’s new in iOS 26.5 What Apple did not include in iOS 26.5 What’s coming next Which iPhones can run iOS 26.5 Should you update now? Apple dropped iOS 26.5 today, and your iPhone can pick it up right now. Head to Settings, tap General, then Software Update, and the download will be waiting for you. The update is about 14+ GB, so you need Wi-Fi connection before you start. Image source: Iphone 15 pro screenshot This is the last major update in the iOS 26 lineup. Apple’s next big software reveal happens at WWDC on June 8, 2026, where the company is expected to show off iOS 27. Until then, iOS 26.5 is what you get, and it brings a handful of changes worth knowing about. What’s new in iOS 26.5 Image source: @theapplehub on X (formerly Twitter) 1. End-to-end encrypted RCS messaging The biggest change in this update is encrypted messaging between iPhones and Android phones. For a long time, texts sent from an iPhone to an Android device were not encrypted, which meant they could be read by your carrier or anyone intercepting the connection. iOS 26.5 changes that, at least in part. Apple has built support for RCS Universal Profile 3.0, which uses the Messaging Layer Security (MLS) protocol to encrypt your conversations. Encryption is enabled by default. You can check the status by going to Settings> Apps> Messages> RCS Messaging, where you’ll see an “End-to-End Encryption (Beta)” toggle. When a conversation is encrypted, you’ll see a lock icon and the word “Encrypted” in your Messages thread. Google Messages on Android shows the same label, so both sides of the conversation will know the protection is active. There’s an important catch, though. The encryption only works if your carrier and the other person’s carrier both support RCS Universal Profile 3.0. If one side doesn’t, your messages will still go through as unencrypted RCS or plain SMS. Apple hasn’t published a full list of which carriers support it yet. For iPhone users in Nigeria, this feature will likely not be active right away. Apple’s Africa carrier page currently lists MTN, Airtel, Glo, and 9mobile as partners for basic iPhone features like eSIM and LTE, but RCS is not listed as supported by any of them. Until those carriers upgrade their networks to support the new standard, iPhone-to-Android chats in Nigeria will continue to work as they do today. If you need encrypted messaging now, Signal and WhatsApp both provide it without depending on your carrier. 2. Suggested Places in Apple Maps Open Apple Maps and tap the search bar. You’ll now see two recommended places appear above your recent searches. Apple says the suggestions are based on what’s trending nearby and your past activity in the app. The privacy note Apple includes in the app states that advertising information from these suggestions is not linked to your Apple Account and that data is not shared with third parties. That said, there is no way to turn this off. The suggestions will always be there when you search. This feature also sets the stage for paid ads in Apple Maps, which Apple has confirmed will launch in the US and Canada later this summer. Those ads will appear in the same space, labelled as “Ad.” There’s no opt-out for those either. If you don’t want to see sponsored results in your map searches, switching to Google Maps is your main option. 3. Pride Luminance wallpaper iOS 26.5 includes a new wallpaper called Pride Luminance. It refracts colours dynamically as the light and angle on your screen shifts. The wallpaper comes with 11 preset colour options and a custom mode that lets you pick between 1 and 12 colours. It matches a new Apple Watch face and Sport Loop of the same name that Apple is also releasing. 4. Magic Keyboard and accessory pairing improvement If you use a Magic Keyboard, Magic Mouse, or Magic Trackpad with your iPhone or iPad, iOS 26.5 makes pairing easier. Connecting one of those accessories via USB-C will now automatically pair it over Bluetooth. Once you unplug the cable, the Bluetooth connection stays active. You won’t need to go into Settings to pair it manually anymore. This is how those accessories already work on Mac, and Apple has now brought the same behaviour to iPhone and iPad. 5. Other changes under the hood Beyond the main features, iOS 26.5 includes several smaller updates: App Store subscriptions get a new billing option. Developers can now offer monthly pricing with a 12-month commitment, so you get a lower monthly rate but agree to pay for the full year. This is available in most markets outside the US and Singapore. The Reminders app now shows specific times when you snooze a reminder. Instead of “This Afternoon,” you’ll see “Remind Me at 3:00 PM,” which is more useful at a glance. Transferring data from an iPhone to an Android phone now includes new options for how long to keep message attachments, with choices ranging from 30 days to everything. EU users get additional interoperability features, including proximity pairing for third-party earbuds and Live Activities support on non-Apple accessories. These are exclusive to the European Union due to the Digital Markets Act. What Apple did not include in iOS 26.5 The most talked-about missing feature is the upgraded Siri. Apple promised a more capable version of Siri starting with the iPhone 16 launch in 2024. The features in question include: Personal context: Siri reading your emails, messages, and calendar to answer questions like “When is my friend’s birthday?” On-screen awareness: Siri understanding what you’re currently looking at on your screen In-app and cross-app actions: Siri completing tasks across multiple apps without you having to switch between them A new on-device AI model to power all of the above None of this shipped in iOS 26.5. According to Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman, internal testing encountered accuracy and speed issues, which is why the features keep getting
Read MoreAfter three years of decline from the 2021 peak, African startups raised $3.4 billion in 2025, a 32% rebound from the previous year. But beneath that headline lies a less-discussed shift. Angel participation has recovered after two years of caution, and deals below $1 million, one of the few segments of the market that has expanded steadily since 2019, continue to grow. For the African Business Angel Network (ABAN), an industry body representing angel investors across the continent, the growth validates a decade of work to organise Africa’s local angel base. Since 2015, ABAN has served as a bridge for the continent’s angel investment ecosystem and now links more than 5,000 angel investors through 75-plus member networks across 37 African countries and the diaspora. Its 2025 Angel Investment Survey Report, released this month in partnership with the United Nations and Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, is the closest thing the ecosystem has to an audit of how early-stage capital moves on the continent. The report found that 62 angel networks deployed at least $4.4 million in disclosed funding in 2025, with 65% of the startups they backed securing follow-on capital. Over 90% of individual angels are now writing cheques below $25,000, up from 76% in 2024, a compression that reflects both shifting risk appetite and the depreciating currencies most of these angels operate in. What makes the findings worthy of discussion now, rather than at any other point in the past three years, is the structural question underlying the rebound. International capital is retreating, and the cheap-money era that fuelled 2021 and 2022 is no longer today’s reality. If the early-stage layer of the African ecosystem is to hold, it will be because local and diaspora angels, organised through networks like ABAN’s, can move faster and write more cheques than they have historically. For this week’s Ask an Investor, I spoke to Favour Ubaka, one of the report’s creators and a stakeholder engagement officer at ABAN, to understand why angel deal participation rebounded in 2025 after a two-year decline, and what a $5,000–$10,000 cheque actually buys a founder in a market where the naira has lost more than 70% of its dollar value since 2022. This interview has been edited lightly for clarity and length. Data shows angel deal participation rebounded in 2025 after declining in 2023 and 2024. What’s driving it? First, we are seeing early-stage funding become active again after a period of caution across the ecosystem. Many investors became more conservative in 2023 and 2024 because of global economic uncertainty, currency pressures, and the broader venture capital slowdown. But in 2025, there was renewed confidence around early-stage innovation, particularly around startups that could demonstrate traction and real market demand. Second, local and diaspora investors are stepping in more intentionally. One of the strongest signals from the report is that angel investing in Africa is no longer being driven only by external capital. We are seeing more African founders, operators, executives, and diaspora professionals participating in angel investing. These investors understand local markets better and are often more willing to take early bets on African founders. Third, the ecosystem itself is becoming more organised. Angel networks are more structured today than they were a few years ago. We now have stronger syndication models, matching funds like Catalytic Africa, investor education programmes, and vehicles like ABAN helping angels invest across borders more efficiently. All of this reduces friction and gives investors more confidence to participate in deals. What is also interesting is that the rebound is not only happening in the traditional “Big Four” markets anymore. We are increasingly seeing activity in ecosystems like Zambia, Ghana, Senegal, Uganda, and Tanzania. This tells us the ecosystem is slowly becoming broader and more distributed across the continent. African tech funding rose 32% to $3.8 billion in 2025, but the report notes deals below $1 million have been expanding steadily since 2019. What share of 2025’s $3.8B actually went to sub-$1M rounds, and how does that compare to other time periods? What we are seeing is a bit of a split story. The $3.8 billion headline is still largely driven by bigger, later-stage rounds. But underneath that, sub-$1 million deals have been quietly growing and becoming more consistent since 2019. So while they don’t dominate the total capital deployed, they make up a significant share of deal activity. In simple terms, most of the money is concentrated at the top, but most of the activity is happening at the early stage. And compared to earlier periods like 2021 and 2022, the market leaned more towards larger rounds. What we are seeing now is a stronger, more active early-stage layer, with angels and angel networks continuing to fund that first cheque. That is really what sustains the pipeline. The report frames 2025 as an “uptick.” How fragile is that uptick given macro headwinds? I would not describe the uptick as fragile, but I would say it is still early and very dependent on how the ecosystem continues to respond to current conditions. What we are seeing in 2025 is not just a rebound driven by external capital coming back in. In many ways, it is being supported by a stronger foundation, particularly local investors, diaspora participation, and more organised angel networks stepping in at the early stage. At the same time, the macro headwinds are real. We have seen reduced activity from some international funding sources, tighter global liquidity, and broader economic uncertainty. Those factors have not gone away. But what is interesting is how the ecosystem is adjusting. Early-stage activity, especially below $1 million, has remained active and continues to grow. Angels are still writing those first cheques, and in many cases, they are filling gaps where larger capital has pulled back. So rather than fragile, I would describe this as a more grounded recovery. It may not be as fast or as headline-heavy as previous peaks, but it is being built on more consistent early-stage activity and stronger local participation.
Read MoreNigeria’s biggest banks are processing record volumes of digital payments, but this is also increasing their exposure to fraud. Access Holdings Plc, Guaranty Trust Holding Company Plc (GTCO), and United Bank for Africa Plc (UBA) lost a combined ₦2.13 billion ($1.56 million) to fraud and forgery incidents in 2025, according to an analysis of their audited financial statements. Most of the incidents were electronic, with the total number of fraud incidents declining by 15.03% in 2025. However, the amount extracted per successful attack increased, indicating that fraudsters are becoming more efficient at exploiting banks’ vulnerabilities. The three banks lost an average of ₦44,454 ($32.65) per fraud incident in 2025, up from ₦40,488 ($29.74) in the previous year. The amount linked to fraud incidents declined by 0.87% to ₦10.29 billion ($7.56 million). Only 20.66% of that amount became actual losses, suggesting the three banks were able to recover or block part of the stolen funds before settlement. The 2025 Bank Fraud Landscape Not all defense lines hold equal. By comparing the total volume fraudsters targeted against the actual financial impact, we can see how efficiently different banks intercepted attacks before settlement. System Insight: UBA faced the heaviest bombardment (₦4.56B targeted) but their infrastructure successfully intercepted 86.4% of it. Meanwhile, Access Bank suffered the highest actual impact (₦1.24B), with 39.1% of their successfully targeted funds crystallizing into a loss. UBA 26,400 Incidents ₦4.56B Targeted ₦621.57M Lost (13.6%) Access Bank 5,981 Incidents ₦3.17B Targeted ₦1.24B Lost (39.1%) GTCO 15,469 Incidents ₦2.58B Targeted ₦269.44M Lost (10.4%) Blocked / Recovered Crystallized Impact Data extracted from 2025 Audited Financial Statements. Target amounts represent the “Successful” attack attempts. Built by TechCabal The numbers highlight that while faster payments create new revenue opportunities for banks and fintechs, they are also widening the attack surface for cybercriminals. Data from the Nigerian Inter-Bank Settlement System (NIBSS) showed that there were 67,518 fraud-related incidents in 2025 alone. On an individual level, Access reported that electronic fraud cases fell 47.74% to 5,931, but cash theft, representing only 26 incidents, and contributing 14.31% to total losses. At UBA, electronic fraud accounted for 99.91% of the 26,400 fraud cases it recorded in 2025. Fraudulent transfers alone accounted for 35.99% of actual losses—the single largest fraud channel by value. GTCO disclosed that the amount linked to fraud incidents increased 30.05%. Actual fraud losses rose 69.34%, despite a 0.48% decline in total fraud cases. These losses are absorbed by the banks, and stricter verification requirements and tighter transfer controls for customers are imposed. Instant payments reached ₦284.99 trillion ($209.34 billion) in the first quarter of 2025, according to NIBSS. Four commercial banks, GTCO, UBA, First Bank of Nigeria, and Zenith Bank, processed ₦286.19 trillion ($210.22 billion) through their mobile apps in 2025. As transaction volumes rise, banks have to spend more money to protect their infrastructure. Collectively, Access Holdings, GTCO, and UBA spent ₦280.90 billion ($206.33 million) on technology investments in 2025, including cybersecurity systems, fraud-monitoring tools, customer-authentication infrastructure, and transaction-security upgrades. The True Cost of Cashless Banks lost ₦2.13 billion to fraud in 2025, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Explore the data below to see the hidden scale of cyber attacks and the massive defense budget required to protect the ecosystem. The Attack Flow The Defense Budget Total Exposed Capital ₦10.29 Billion Blocked/Recovered (79.3%) Lost (20.7%) Insight: While the total number of fraud incidents dropped, the amount extracted per successful attack increased to ₦44,454. Fraudsters are becoming more efficient, but banks successfully intercepted over 79% of targeted funds before settlement. Financial Burden: Spend vs Loss Cybersecurity Spend ₦280.90B Actual Funds Lost ₦2.13B Insight: To keep ₦71.06 trillion in customer deposits secure, Access, GTCO, and UBA collectively spent roughly 131 times more on defense systems than what they actually lost to cybercriminals. Data based on 2025 Audited Financials (Access, GTCO, UBA). Built by TechCabal Regulatory push Banks have to render monthly returns on fraud and forgeries to the CBN, according to section 24 of the Banks and Other Financial Institutions Act 2020. According to NIBSS, fraud reporting fell by 34% in the final quarter of 2025. Beyond that, the apex bank is increasingly mandating banks and fintechs to move from simply processing transactions to actively policing them. Banks are now expected to verify customers more aggressively, monitor transactions in real time, including using artificial intelligence, detect suspicious device activity, and absorb the consequences of fraud failures. In 2025, the CBN directed NIBSS to begin debiting institutions that receive proceeds from fraudulent transactions. The regulator also tightened onboarding requirements, including mandatory liveness verification and device-binding measures designed to limit account takeovers and identity fraud. Telecom operators are also increasingly being pulled into fraud enforcement as regulators push for real-time phone-number risk flagging and broader data-sharing frameworks between telcos and financial institutions. When financial institutions fail to comply with anti-fraud controls, they face sanctions. In 2025, the CBN fined Access Holdings ₦138 million ($101,366) for inadequate Know Your Customer controls linked to fraud cases. For now, Nigeria’s banking system remains financially resilient. Access, GTCO, and UBA held ₦71.06 trillion ($52.19 billion) in customer deposits at the end of 2025, with actual fraud losses representing just 0.003% of deposits. But as digital payments scale deeper into the economy, fraud is becoming embedded as a hidden operating cost of Nigeria’s cashless transition, one that banks, customers, telecom operators, and regulators are increasingly being forced to pay. Note: exchange rate used: ₦1,361.4/$
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