Apple Seeds Second Beta of iOS 11.1 to Developers and Public Beta Testers With New Emoji

Apple today seeded the second beta of an upcoming iOS 11.1 update to developers, nearly two weeks releasing the first iOS 11.1 beta and a few weeks after releasing the iOS 11 update to the public.

Registered developers can download the iOS 11 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

ios 11
Apple said the second beta of iOS 11.1 introduces a range of new Unicode 10 emoji like crazy face, pie, pretzel, t-rex, vampire, exploding head, face vomiting, shushing face, love you gesture, brain, scarf, zebra, giraffe, fortune cookie, pie, hedgehog, and more.

ios11emoji1
Several emoji have also seen some small design changes in iOS 11.1, including the dolphin, octopus, bee, snail, and whale characters, among others.

ios111emojiupdates
A few other small features were discovered in the initial iOS 11.1 beta. The built-in keyboard in iOS 11.1 now offers up multiple emoji symbols when using an emoji-related word like "cake" or "happy," with each of the suggestions displayed at the end of the predictive text suggestions. There's also an updated camera icon under Restrictions, a new animation when tapping the status bar to scroll upwards, and a faster unlock animation.

iOS 11 marks a major update to the operating system with systemwide design tweaks, a new Lock screen experience, a revamped Control Center, ARKit, new app features, and an entirely new interface for the iPad that includes a Dock, Drag and Drop support, and a redesigned App Switcher for better than ever multitasking.

Update: Apple has also released the second beta of iOS 11.1 to public beta testers.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Popular Stories

iOS 26

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by
While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April. Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far. iOS 26.3 iPhone to Android Transfer Tool iOS 26.3 makes it easier...
imac video apple feature

Apple Makes Its Second-Biggest Acquisition Ever

Tuesday February 3, 2026 12:45 pm PST by
Apple recently acquired Israeli startup Q.ai for close to $2 billion, according to Financial Times sources. That would make this Apple's second-biggest acquisition ever, after it paid $3 billion for the popular headphone maker Beats in 2014. This is also the largest known Apple acquisition since the company purchased Intel's smartphone modem business and patents for $1 billion in 2019....
iOS 26 Home Feature

Apple Gives Final Warning to Home App Users

Tuesday February 3, 2026 8:55 am PST by
In 2022, Apple introduced a new Apple Home architecture that is "more reliable and efficient," and the deadline to upgrade and avoid issues is fast approaching. In an email this week, Apple gave customers a final reminder to upgrade their Home app by February 10, 2026. Apple says users who do not upgrade may experience issues with accessories and automations, or lose access to their smart...
Apple Logo Zoomed

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by
Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026. "I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...
maxresdefault

M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro Launch Imminent as Reseller Stock Dwindles

Tuesday February 3, 2026 12:12 pm PST by
New M5 Pro and M5 Max MacBook Pro models are slated to launch in the near future, according to information shared with MacRumors by an Apple Premium Reseller. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. The third-party Apple retailer said that MacBook Pro stock is very low currently because there is an imminent new product introduction. Apple typically coordinates supply with...

Top Rated Comments

dan9700 Avatar
109 months ago
People honestly are more excited about dam Emojis sad times we live in
Score: 31 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
109 months ago
I still find hard to believe how much time, publicity and resources Apple throws into such a puny tangent such as emojis, ...
I'll try to make this simple:

Apple supports the Unicode standard for encoding characters stored on iOS and macOS, because, frankly, using any other coding system would be insane (the entire world has moved to Unicode for good reasons).

The Unicode Consortium has a group that is responsible for approving the addition of new characters and character sets to the Unicode standard, and they keep accepting new emoji characters.

Apple, in order to comply with the Unicode standard, has a few graphic artists (not software developers) design new images to go with the newly assigned emoji (and other characters). (Note also that small images are highly unlikely to break other software on the system, so such changes are comparatively easy to push through, unlike many of the more complicated software bugs.)

Apple publishes software (like this beta) that includes the new symbols (amongst many other changes) in order to keep abreast of the standards, and they don't particularly publicize the new emoji, those usually get little more than a bullet point buried in the release notes.

News/rumors sites (which you are reading of your own volition) like MacRumors (not Apple), publicize the new Unicode characters added, and, predictably, such articles get a huge number of hits by people eager to complain about new emoji in iOS/macOS.

If you want to complain, complain directly to the Unicode Consortium ('http://unicode.org/consortium/consort.html') about how they should stop adding new emoji to the Unicode character set, and/or complain directly to MacRumors (not on page 5 of the comments, but write directly to the site's owners, their email addresses are at the bottom of the site's front page) about how much coverage they give to new emoji added to Apple's OS's. Complaining about it on page 5 of the comments here only makes you feel good.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michael Goff Avatar
109 months ago
Honestly Apple, can they just get their ****ing priorities right for once?
Agreed. We should move the artists that make the emoji over to fixing bugs. That’s how it works, right?
Score: 17 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Michael Goff Avatar
109 months ago
iOS 11 is an absolute mess, but thank 8 pound, 6 ounce Newborn Baby Jesus that we have a female vampire emoji. I dont know what I would have done without it.
Never understood this type of response. Do you think the people who make emoji are capable of fixing crashes and graphical glitches?
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveOP Avatar
109 months ago
Home button delay not fixed and 3d touch still bad i bet but guess what guys new Emojis wow omg
I bet 90% or more of iPhone users use emoji every day, and I bet 99% or more of them would not complain about home button lag, if polled. What would you work on, if you were Apple?

Edit: I assume you understand that the same artists designing emoji would not be fixing your perceived issues.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
DaveMcM76 Avatar
109 months ago
People do know that the new emojis are all part of supporting the latest Unicode standards don’t they? Apple aren’t just making them up and adding them for the sake of it...
Score: 9 Votes (Like | Disagree)