Apple Seeds watchOS 26.5 RC, tvOS 26.5 RC, and visionOS 26.5 RC to Developers [Download]

Apple has provided developers with the Release Candidates for watchOS 26.5, tvOS 26.5, visionOS 26.5, and HomePod Software 26.5. The build numbers for today's updates are 23T570 for watchOS, 23L471 for tvOS and HomePod, and 23O471 for visionOS.



For the Apple Watch, the watchOS 26.5 update introduces a new Pride Luminance watch face that dynamically refracts a spectrum of colors. Users can add the design directly from the Face Gallery. The software also takes care of a couple of specific bugs. It resolves an issue where the Messages app might default to SMS instead of iMessage when paired with a dual-SIM iPhone, and it fixes a problem that caused audio alerts in the Workout app to fail if the paired iPhone wasn't nearby.


Apple has not published detailed release notes for the other platforms, which appear focused on performance improvements and overall stability. The updates follow a testing cycle that recently wrapped up with the fourth round of betas late last month.

Registered developers can download the new software by checking the Software Update section in Settings on their respective devices. The watchOS update must be initiated through the Watch app on a paired iPhone.