iOS 10.1 is the first major point release for iOS 10. And it’s also the first iOS 10 release that has more than bug fixes. Apple has made some much needed interface and experience changes. There’s also a brand new, much talked about feature for the new iPhone. Check out everything that’s new in iOS 10.1 below.
1. Portrait Mode
The biggest new feature in iOS 10.1 is the Portrait mode we first saw at the iPhone 7 launch. The feature is only available for the iPhone 7 Plus and it adds a Bokeh effect to your photos, using some smart software tricks.
I thought you couldn’t take pretty low-light shots with the iPhone 7 Plus portrait mode. I may have been mistaken… #iphone7plus #munich pic.twitter.com/kbCxQvaOTX
— Adrian Thomas 🇪🇺 (@adrianthomas) October 16, 2016
The Portrait mode blurs the background and puts the subject in focus. It can be accessed by swiping left in the Camera view.
The Camera app will give you directions on how to use the feature. It will alert you if the subject is too far away or too close. When the subject is at the right distance, you’ll see the Bokeh effect live. Take a picture and it will be saved.
iPhone 7 Plus Portrait Mode Live Preview (iOS 10.1 developer beta 1) pic.twitter.com/fc5xSAaMkr
— Stu Maschwitz (@5tu) October 1, 2016
We encourage you to use this feature as much as possible. It’s not perfect but I’ve seen people take some amazing shots with it.
Whenever you take a picture with the Depth Effect, the camera also saves a “normal” picture. So even if the Bokeh effect was screwed up, you have the original picture as a backup.
2. iMessage Effects Toggle
As we discovered with the iOS 10 upgrade, users who had turned on the Reduce Motion setting in Accessibility were no longer able to send, receive or view the new iMessage Effects.
iOS 10.1 adds a new toggle that lets you keep everything else in “Reduce Motion” mode, but still lets you use iMessage Effects.
It’s available in “Settings” -> “General” -> “Accessibility” -> “Reduce Motion”. If Reduce Motion toggle is turned on, you’ll see this setting below.
3. Redesigned iMessage Apps Drawer
If you had more than 20 or so iMessage apps, the iMessage app drawer became really ugly. The dots at the bottom would overlap other icons and it was just a mess.
Apple has solved this problem by removing the dots and instead putting up a scroll bar that only shows up when you’re swiping between the pages. This means, the “Recents” icon is also gone.
Read: Top 10 iMessage Apps for iOS 10
4. Replay Text Effect
In iOS 10.1, when you get an iMessage Effect in a conversation, you’ll now see a “Replay” button below it. This lets you replay the effect.
5. Opening Notifications Actually Works
In iOS 10, this was something that was buggy and erratic. When I’d try to tap on a notification from the Notification Centre, it would basically do nothing. Or sometimes it would open the app but wouldn’t take me to the specific part of the app, like a Messenger conversation.
So far, in iOS 10.1, this seems to be fixed for me.
What Did You Discover?
Did we miss something in the 10.1 release? Share with us in the comments below.
