Apple Releases iOS 11.1 With New Emoji, 3D Touch App Switcher, and More

Apple today released iOS 11.1, the first major update to the iOS 11 operating system available on the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. iOS 11.1 comes more than a month after iOS 11 was first released to the public and its launch comes after several rounds of beta testing.

The update is available on all eligible devices over-the-air in the Settings app. To access the update, go to Settings --> General --> Software Update. Eligible devices include the iPhone 5s and later, the iPad mini 2 and later, the iPad Air and later, and the 6th-generation iPod touch.

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 have been introduced in the iOS 11 update, expanding the number of emoji available to iOS users.

Several emoji also feature some small design changes in iOS 11.1, including the dolphin, bee, snail, and whale characters, among others. The new designs are more detailed and realistic than existing designs.

Along with these major features, iOS 11 introduces a fix for a Reachability bug that's been present since the release of iOS 11 and it brings back the popular 3D Touch App Switcher gesture that lets iPhone users perform a 3D Touch gesture at the left edge of the display to bring up the multitasking App Switcher interface.

The built-in keyboard in iOS 11.1 now offers up multiple emoji symbols when using an emoji-related word, there's a new camera icon under Restrictions, a new animation when tapping the status bar to scroll upwards, and a faster unlock animation.

There are also many bug fixes and security improvements in iOS 11.1. Most notably, the update addresses a major vulnerability in the WPA2 Wi-Fi standard that is used to protect many modern Wi-Fi networks. The exploit, which is now fixed, let attackers use a key reinstallation attack or "KRACK" to decrypt network traffic to sniff out sensitive information. Full release notes for the update, including all of the bug fixes, are available below:

Emoji
- Over 70 new emoji characters including new food types, animals, mythical creatures, clothing options, more expressive smiley faces, gender-neutral characters and more

Photos
- Resolves an issue that could cause some photos to appear blurry
- Addresses an issue that could cause Live Photo effects to playback slowly
- Fixes an issue that could cause some photos to not display in the People album when restoring from an iCloud Backup
- Fixes an issue that could impact performance when swiping between screenshots

Accessibility
- Improves braille support for Grade 2 input
- Improves VoiceOver access to multi-page PDFs
- Improves VoiceOver rotor actions for announcing incoming notifications
- Improves VoiceOver rotor actions menu when removing an app from the App Switcher
- Fixes an issue for some users where alternative keys would not display when using VoiceOver with Touch Typing
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver rotor would always return to default action in Mail
- Fixes an issue where VoiceOver rotor would not delete messages

Other improvements and fixes
- Adds back support for accessing the app switcher by pressing on edge of display with 3D Touch
- Fixes an issue that caused cleared Mail notifications to reappear on Lock screen
- Fixes an issue in enterprise environments that prevented data from being moved between managed apps
- Fixes an issue with some 3rd-party GPS accessories that caused inaccuracies in location data
- Resolves an issue where settings for Heart Rate notifications were appearing in Apple Watch app (1st generation)
- Fixes an issue where app icons were not appearing in notifications on Apple Watch

For more on what's included in iOS 11.1 and the iOS 11 operating system in general, make sure to check out our iOS 11 roundup.