diff --git a/NEWS b/NEWS
index 3f1544bf..19e41e35 100644
--- a/NEWS
+++ b/NEWS
@@ -1,3 +1,10 @@
+Major changes in 49.rc:
+* Further improvements to keyboard navigation
+* Introduce a new testing framework for GUI and backend interactions
+* Make month names more prominent
+* Visual tweaks to the views and the preview popover
+* Updated translations
+
 Major changes in 49.alpha:
 * Remove default calendar row from the Calendar Management dialog
 * Various internal cleanups in the Week View
diff --git a/meson.build b/meson.build
index 0c1e6a7b..62734963 100644
--- a/meson.build
+++ b/meson.build
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 project(
   'gnome-calendar',
                'c',
-           version: '49.beta',
+           version: '49.rc',
            license: 'GPL3+',
      meson_version: '>= 0.58.0'
 )
diff --git a/src/appdata/org.gnome.Calendar.metainfo.xml.in.in b/src/appdata/org.gnome.Calendar.metainfo.xml.in.in
index 2e8bbd63..f9e5fed2 100644
--- a/src/appdata/org.gnome.Calendar.metainfo.xml.in.in
+++ b/src/appdata/org.gnome.Calendar.metainfo.xml.in.in
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@
 
   <releases>
 
+    <release date="2025-08-30" version="49~rc" type="development" />
     <release date="2025-07-05" version="49~alpha" type="development" />
 
     <release date="2025-03-19" version="48.1" type="stable">