1. There's More Than 70 New Emoji Apple added 146 new emoji in total to iOS 12.1, however, a lot of those are skin variations of people or body parts. So, the total emoji added minus skin tone options comes out to 76, which are all from the Emoji 11.0 list that was released to vendors in June 2018. Actually, one of those 76 is the United Nations flag that was available in Emoji 4.0 in 2016 but not adopted by Apple until now. Also, Apple has changed the two phone emojis from phones that have Home buttons to ones with Face ID instead of physical Home buttons. At some point in the beta, after the bagel emoji was added, Apple updated it with cream cheese since it didn't have any spread on it — which was blasphemy for all who eat bagels.

3. You Can Take Advantage of eSIM Now If you're sporting one of the new iPhone XS, XS Max, or XR devices, they came with dual SIM support so that you can use two different cellular plans at once, like one for personal use and one for work. However, this was not possible out of the box since they don't have two slots for physical SIM cards. Instead, they have one nanoSIM and one eSIM, the latter of which was not ready for prime time until now. Even if you don't want to use two cellular plans right now, you may want to convert your current cellular plan from the nanoSIM to the eSIM so that when the times comes when you're traveling or need to pop in another SIM, you'll be able to do so without any hassle. Speak to your carrier for information on transferring your current plan to the eSIM. More Info: Everything You Need to Know About Dual SIMs on Your iPhone

4. iPhone X S & X S Max Users Get Real-Time Depth Control One of the hottest features on the iPhone XS and XS Max out of the box is the depth controls when editing a Portrait mode image. Well, in iOS 12.1, you can adjust the depth of Portrait mode photos while you're taking them, not just after the fact. Image by 9to5Mac/YouTube

5. New Flashlight & Camera Sound on Lock Screen This is one of those things you'll probably never even notice, but when you open the Flashlight or Camera on the lock screen on an iPhone X or newer model, the accompanying audio sounds more pronounce and clicky. Before, it was a very dull sound, but now it sounds almost metallic.

6. There Are Changes for Apple Watch Owners If you have an Apple Watch, you'll notice a new color under "Face Gallery" in the Watch app, and you can enable the speaker during a phone call using one touch like it was in iOS 11, as long as the Apple Watch is connected.

7. The 'Beautygate' Phenomena in Portraits Is Gone There was a huge controversy over how the Camera app took selfies with the front-facing lens on the iPhone XS and XS Max. Dubbed #beautygate, Apple's software would smooth out the details in a self-portrait, making the skin look like it had a "beauty" filter applied. The new Smart HDR feature was at fault here, according to The Verge, which was choosing a blurrier base image as the lead image when combing exposures. Apple confirmed this was a bug and fixed it in iOS 12.1. With #beautygate details are smoothed out (left). Without it, details are intact (right).

Other Improvements Worth Highlighting In Apple's release notes for iOS 12.1, they list the following as additional improvements and fixes. Improves cellular connectivity for iPhone X S , iPhone X S Max, and iPhone X R

, iPhone Max, and iPhone Adds the ability to change or reset your child's Screen Time passcode using Face ID or Touch ID

Resolves an issue that caused messages to be merged into one thread when two users were signed in with the same Apple ID on multiple iPhones

Addresses an issue that prevented some voicemails from appearing in the Phone app

Resolves an issue in the Phone app that could cause phone numbers to appear without their corresponding contact name

Fixes an issue that could prevent Screen Time from reporting specific websites in the activity report

Addresses an issue that could prevent adding or removing family members from Family Sharing

Adds a performance management feature to prevent the device from unexpectedly shutting down, including the option to disable this feature if an unexpected shutdown occurs, for iPhone X, iPhone 8, and iPhone 8 Plus

Adds the ability for Battery Health to inform users that it is unable to verify if a genuine Apple battery is in iPhone X S , iPhone X S Max, and iPhone X R

, iPhone Max, and iPhone Improves reliability of VoiceOver in Camera, Siri, and Safari

Fixes an issue that could cause MDM Device Enrollment to report an Invalid Profile error for some enterprise users Don't Miss: 100+ Coolest New iOS 12 Features You Didn't Know About

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