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Apple Seeds First Beta of iOS 12.1 to Public Beta Testers With Group FaceTime

Thursday September 20, 2018 10:08 am PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today seeded the first beta of an upcoming iOS 12.1 update to its public beta testing group, two days after releasing the beta to developers and three days after the launch of iOS 12, a new major version of the iOS software.

Beta testers who have signed up for Apple's beta testing program will receive the iOS 12 beta update over-the-air after installing the proper certificate on an iOS device.


Those who want to join the beta testing program can sign up on Apple's beta testing website, which gives users access to iOS, macOS, and tvOS betas.

The iOS 12.1 update reintroduces Group FaceTime, a major iOS 12 feature that was pulled during the beta testing period because it needed more work. Apple promised to deliver the feature in an upcoming update, which looks like it will be iOS 12.1.

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Group FaceTime is designed to let you audio or video chat with up to 32 people at one time on an iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Calls can also be answered in an audio-only capacity using an Apple Watch or the HomePod.

There are other features that Apple has said are coming in future betas, including eSIM support and the ECG functionality and app, but those do not appear to be present in iOS 12.1, nor do new emojis that have been promised for the fall.

Related Roundup: iOS 12
[ 47 comments ]


Top Rated Comments

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agsystems
4 weeks ago
not liking the buried of the flip camera option when it was only a tap away
Rating: 10 Votes
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now i see it
4 weeks ago
Embrace the future



Rating: 9 Votes
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nwcs
4 weeks ago

Embrace the future

If people were given a chance to live their whole lives in a holodeck I bet quite a few people would.
Rating: 6 Votes
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sbailey4
4 weeks ago

What are the hardware requirements for this? Will my 6+ be able to run it? If not, what about my wife's 8+?

Yes all the way back to 5s can run iOS 12.
Rating: 2 Votes
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Keirasplace
4 weeks ago

It is known. Most of my friends and family use iPhones, and I can't think of anyone who hasn't had problems with iMessage. If you look online a bit, you'll see plenty of complaints. But no similar issues with Facebook Messenger, Whatsapp, etc. Maybe you've got the most simple setup on brand new hardware or something.

If you search "Facebook Messenger out of order" on Google, you get threads about iMessage being out of order, lol.


good grief, there are 1.3B IOS users are you are rellying on people posting online as your gauge of anything!! Man. That's crazy. Even if 0.001% of people have issues, even if it is related to their own crap network, or connectivity, you'll get tens of thousands online "clamoring" about it. Means nothing at all.

As for messenger, you got to be kidding. There are plenty of crap happening there too.
Rating: 1 Votes
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amaze1499
4 weeks ago
How about making FaceTime reliable after all? At least 50% of all calls fail on an ongoing basis. Why is it ringing on my side but the other side won't notice and vice versa? It's simply a terrible "sometimes it might work" solution. I could not give a bigger damn about group calls. Apple, you could finally build a version of FaceTime that does what's it supposed to do.... on every call.

WhatsApp always works. Skype always works. I have not literally have one failed call via WhatsApp. Apple is extremely lucky to have customers (or they found a way to keep them addicted) in the millions that loyal and look away when it comes to things like these.
Rating: 1 Votes
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deeddawg
4 weeks ago

Embrace the future


Bet we'll have an online service for pr0n hookups via Facetime Memoji by the end of the year...
Rating: 1 Votes
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Rudy69
4 weeks ago

Unexpected.

How so? The developers got it 2 days ago so that sounds about right
Rating: 1 Votes
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coolfactor
4 weeks ago

not liking the buried of the flip camera option when it was only a tap away


There's several strange design decision in iOS 12. Not sure how this stuff makes it past executive reviews. Maybe those people are clueless?

In Messages, when in a conversation, the recipient's name appears at the top, as before, but now instead iof an (i) button, they changed it to a right-pointing arrow >.

FirstName LastName >

Tapping this expands the panel *down* with three abnormally small icons+text. The font size is small... feels wrong.

Hello Apple... a right-pointing arrow should take me on the right, as it's always done!
Rating: 1 Votes
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Bornee35
4 weeks ago
expected
Rating: 1 Votes

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