iOS 12.1 Lands Tomorrow With Real-Time Depth Control, Group FaceTime

Apple’s next hardware event is going down tomorrow. Just a day ahead of the event, Apple today announced that it will release a new update to iOS 12 tomorrow, introducing new features and enhancements.

With iOS 12.1, the company is upgrading the Depth Control feature for Portrait mode on the iPhone Xs with support for real-time preview. The new cameras on the iPhone Xs allow users to control the depth for Portrait mode pictures after taking the pictures — but with iOS 12.1, you will be able to control the depth of field in real-time when taking pictures, as well as after taking the shot. Even though iPhone’s Portrait mode still struggles to work accurately with curly hair, etc., I feel like this is probably the biggest feature for me in iOS 12.1.

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The update does bring another feature Apple was originally supposed to ship with iOS 12: Group FaceTime. The update enables the ability to make group video and audio calls on FaceTime with up to 32 people. FaceTime uses on-device intelligence to determine prominent speakers on a call to focus on them over other users on a call, as 32 users on a call can get quite crowded. The feature integrates with iMessage as well, meaning you can easily call your iMessage group from the Messages app anytime you want, and members can join at any time, even after the call has started.

And lastly, iOS 12.1 brings more than 70 new emoji, and you can get a closer look at all the new emoji here. The update also enables support for dual SIM on the iPhone Xs, iPhone Xs Max, and iPhone XR, allowing users to use a combination of nano-SIM and digital eSIM if their device and region support it.

iOS 12.1 is overall a fairly nice upgrade to iOS 12, which was already a major release that refined a lot of the problems that was introduced with iOS 11. The update is still just as fast as iOS 12, so you really don’t have to worry about performance degradation here. Make sure to give the new features a try and spam your friends with the new emoji tomorrow once the update starts rolling out.

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Conversation 12 comments

  • jbuccola

    29 October, 2018 - 11:11 pm

    <p>Apple's phones remain in market longer than their Android counterparts; look no further than regular iOS updates and hardware quality. The secondary/gray market strength is the key to Apple's ever-climbing average sale price (ASP), which was highlighted by the ceiling-busting $1000 iPhone X. Who-da-thunk the "budget" model priced at $750 would be touted as a 'bargain.' If only Android-makers would work with carriers as Apple has to make Pixel-like OS compatibility the norm rather than the exception… it'd be a beautiful thing.</p>

  • jbuccola

    29 October, 2018 - 11:12 pm

    <p>Mehedi– one omission to this update is 12.1's fix for 'beauty gate' — the over smoothing the Xs is doing to its photos.</p>

  • dontbe evil

    30 October, 2018 - 3:40 am

    <p>OMG that's revolutionary, group calling!!!??? how did they manage to do it… they're the best!!!</p>

    • nbplopes

      30 October, 2018 - 6:53 am

      <blockquote><em><a href="#357874">In reply to dontbe_evil:</a></em></blockquote><p><br></p><p>…. without forgetting to save users photos and not deleting files. They still setting industry standards … amazing …</p>

  • StevenLayton

    30 October, 2018 - 6:00 am

    <p>My finger is hurting from repetitively checking for updates, lol.</p>

  • MikeGalos

    30 October, 2018 - 8:36 am

    <p>Wow. When any other company blows an OS release and delays key features they announced and publicly demonstrated they would get a press response of "… finally releases delayed and long promised features" at best if not comments about vaporware. </p><p><br></p><p>By comparison, Apple gets "fairly nice upgrade" that is "introducing new features and enhancements" and "<span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Make sure to give the new features a try:</span></p>

    • Jeffsters

      01 November, 2018 - 6:40 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#357940">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>huh? Mike Mike Mike….nothing to do today? Hey at least the update doesn’t delete files heh! </p>

    • Jeffsters

      01 November, 2018 - 6:41 pm

      <blockquote><em><a href="#357940">In reply to MikeGalos:</a></em></blockquote><p>Oh…forgot. Apple got sued by a patent troll when Group FaceTime was announced and it had to work through litigation. We good?</p>

  • neseini

    11 December, 2018 - 3:02 am

    <p>This is awesome feature that every iOS user wants on their iPhone or iPad devices. Group chat with deep control on the app is pretty cool. Now its easy to get all apps and games for free on iOS devices using <a href="https://topstorevip.com/&quot; target="_blank">TopStore</a>. All apps are available for free on this app.</p>

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    28 March, 2019 - 11:42 pm

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    05 June, 2019 - 12:37 am

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  • msd77

    18 July, 2019 - 11:34 am

    <p>use these app to watch online content. <a href="http://www.downloadapkios.com/download-bobby-movie-box-apk-latest-version-android/&quot; target="_blank">Bobby</a> <a href="http://www.downloadapkios.com/download-newest-movies-hd-apk/&quot; target="_blank">Newest</a></p><p><br></p>

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