New Features of iOS 11.1

The first major point update to iOS 11 is here and you’re going to want to update. This 300 MB update has the three things we care the most about – battery life improvements, stability improvements, and new emojis. Here’s everything that’s new in this update.

New Features of iOS 11.1

New Emoji

Usually, this is reason enough to upgrade. And this time is no different. iOS 11.1 brings more than 70 new emojis to your iOS device and some of them are really interesting. The new Crazy face and Exploding head being my favorites. You can look at all the new emojis in the update over at Emojipedia.

3D Touch App Switcher is Back

And finally, the one feature we didn’t think that many users cared about (but they clearly did), is back. Apple removed 3D Touch App Switcher gesture in iOS 11 (presumably to work things out with iPhone X gestures). But now, in the 11.1 update, it’s back.

And to me, it feels like a better implementation. I don’t need to press too hard and carry the finger all the way over to the other edge to switch to the most recent apps. Just 3D Touching and flicking my finger seems to do the trick. 3D Touching the edge and letting to gets me to the App Switcher much faster than it did in iOS 10.

Multiple Emoji Suggestions in Keyboard

When you’re using the QuickType keyboard in the Messages app in iOS 11, you’ll now find multiple emoji suggestions at the end of the keyboard. This is a big improvement over the previous implementation which only showed one suggestion in the middle of the suggestions bar.

Reachability Behavior Reversed

Similar to the 3D Touch App Switcher, iOS 11 had removed the ability to access Notification Center (now called Cover Sheet in iOS 11) when Reachability was enabled. Now though, you can swipe down from the empty top half of the screen to bring down the Cover Sheet. A lot of Plus model users used this trick as a quick way to pull down the Notification Center without dragging their thumb all the way to the top of the screen. If you were one of them, you’ll be glad that this feature is back.

Battery Life and Stability Improvements

Lastly, it seems like iOS 11.1 fixes some of the battery issues that a lot of users (especially on the older devices) were having. The current version of iOS 11.1 is the same as the iOS 11.1 Beta 5. And users who have been running the beta for the last week have reported a significant increase in their battery life and reliability in general.

Other Changes

Like with any upgrade, Apple has made slight changes to some UI elements and animations. The most noticeable of which is the animation when you tap the Status bar to quickly scroll to the top of the page. Now, the animation slows down right before you hit the top. So you land on the top smoothly, instead of a jerk.