Apple Seeds Fourth Beta of iOS 11.1 to Developers [Update: Public Beta Available]

Friday October 20, 2017 10:07 am PDT by Juli Clover

Apple today seeded the fourth beta of an upcoming iOS 11.1 update to developers, just four days after releasing the third iOS 11.1 beta and a month after releasing the iOS 11 update to the public.

Registered developers can download the fourth iOS 11.1 beta from Apple's Developer Center or over-the-air once the proper configuration profile has been installed from the Developer Center.

ios 11
iOS 11.1 introduces 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.

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

The update also introduces a fix for a Reachability bug that's been present since the release of iOS 11 and it brings back the 3D Touch App Switcher gesture that has been missing from iOS 11 since its release. With the return of the gesture, iPhone users can once again 3D Touch at the left edge of the display to bring up the multitasking App Switcher interface.

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

As for security fixes, iOS 11.1 addresses a serious vulnerability in the WPA2 Wi-Fi standard that protects many modern Wi-Fi networks. Using a key reinstallation attack or "KRACK," attackers can exploit weaknesses in the WPA2 protocol to decrypt network traffic to sniff out sensitive information.

Though not in the developer/public beta right now, the iOS 11.1 update could introduce the Apple Pay Cash feature, which Apple employees are currently testing in a special version of the beta.

iOS 11 marks a major update to the operating system with systemwide design tweaks, a new Lock screen experience, a revamped Control Center, ARKit, new app features, and an entirely new interface for the iPad that includes a Dock, Drag and Drop support, and a redesigned App Switcher for better than ever multitasking.

Update: There is also a new beta of iOS 11.1 available for public beta testers.

Related Forum: iOS 11

Popular Stories

Tim Cook Teases Plans for Apple's Upcoming 50th Anniversary

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:54 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple turns 50 this year, and its CEO Tim Cook has promised to celebrate the milestone. The big day falls on April 1, 2026. "I've been unusually reflective lately about Apple because we have been working on what do we do to mark this moment," Cook told employees today, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. "When you really stop and pause and think about the last 50 years, it makes your heart ...

• 148 comments

Apple Rumored to Announce New Product on February 19

Thursday February 5, 2026 12:22 pm PST by Joe Rossignol

Apple plans to announce the iPhone 17e on Thursday, February 19, according to Macwelt, the German equivalent of Macworld. The report, citing industry sources, is available in English on Macworld. Apple announced the iPhone 16e on Wednesday, February 19 last year, so the iPhone 17e would be unveiled exactly one year later if this rumor is accurate. It is quite uncommon for Apple to unveil...

Why Apple's iOS 26.4 Siri Upgrade Will Be Bigger Than Originally Promised

Friday February 6, 2026 3:06 pm PST by Juli Clover

In the iOS 26.4 update that's coming this spring, Apple will introduce a new version of Siri that's going to overhaul how we interact with the personal assistant and what it's able to do. The iOS 26.4 version of Siri won't work like ChatGPT or Claude, but it will rely on large language models (LLMs) and has been updated from the ground up. Upgraded Architecture The next-generation...

• 154 comments

iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 Will Add These New Features to Your iPhone

Tuesday February 3, 2026 7:47 am PST by Joe Rossignol

While the iOS 26.3 Release Candidate is now available ahead of a public release, the first iOS 26.4 beta is likely still at least a week away. Following beta testing, iOS 26.4 will likely be released to the general public in March or April. Below, we have recapped known or rumored iOS 26.3 and iOS 26.4 features so far. iOS 26.3 iPhone to Android Transfer Tool iOS 26.3 makes it easier...

• 37 comments

iPhone 18 Pro Max Rumored to Deliver Next-Level Battery Life

Friday February 6, 2026 5:14 am PST by Hartley Charlton

The iPhone 18 Pro Max will feature a bigger battery for continued best-in-class battery life, according to a known Weibo leaker. Citing supply chain information, the Weibo user known as "Digital Chat Station" said that the iPhone 18 Pro Max will have a battery capacity of 5,100 to 5,200 mAh. Combined with the efficiency improvements of the A20 Pro chip, made with TSMC's 2nm process, the...

• 107 comments

Top Rated Comments

Precursor

108 months ago

Don't understand the point of these incremental updates where they put 5-10 new emojis every time. They coulda easily put an "emoji package" into Appstore free to download and left it to user's choice.

Score: 24 Votes (Like | Disagree)

BigJohno

108 months ago

I really hope they fix the stability of ios 11. By far the buggiest and slowest release to date and i'm running it on iphone 8+...

Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

Small White Car

108 months ago

Don't understand the point of these incremental updates where they put 5-10 new emojis every time. They coulda easily put an "emoji package" into Appstore free to download and left it to user's choice.

Yeah sure, that would be a great headline.

“Apple breaks up Unicode - makes users download it in portions”

Score: 12 Votes (Like | Disagree)

CarlJ

108 months ago

Don't understand the point of these incremental updates where they put 5-10 new emojis every time. They coulda easily put an "emoji package" into Appstore free to download and left it to user's choice.

No, they can't. Emojis are not random stickers. They are officially recognized characters in the Unicode Character Set (which is the One True Character Set supported by every modern electronic device - suggestions to use any older character set instead will be met with squeals of maniacal laughter from the entire tech community), and the Unicode Character Set is controlled by a standards group called The Unicode Consortium ('http://unicode.org/'). To comply with the standard, you can't pick and choose characters ("I think maybe we'll leave out the letter 'Q', because I don't like it."), you need to support the whole character set. Some Unicode Consortium committee that is responsible for Emoji, keeps approving people's requests for new Emoji. Apple is just adding images (as required) to go along with the newly assigned characters.

Now, I'm no fan of all these new Emoji. I wish they'd stop adding new ones (I wish they had stopped a couple years ago). But I'm not in charge of this. And neither is Apple. If you want to get them stopped, go find the committee in charge of Emoji, at the Unicode Consortium, and complain to them.

Now, note that this article is about a new beta release of the OS. Said release fixes a bunch of things (along with adding a few new Emoji). MacRumors chooses to illustrate the article with two pictures: one of a phone with "iOS 11.1 Beta" written next to it, and the other with a picture of the new Emoji (instead of some picture relating to any of the other fixes). Which gets people riled up. And reading. And commenting. And loading lots of pages. Does that suggest anything to you?

Blame the Unicode Consortium for there being new Emoji. And blame MacRumors for waving the red flag of new Emoji in front of your face. But neither of those is Apple's fault.

Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)

maramok

108 months ago

Don't understand the point of these incremental updates where they put 5-10 new emojis every time. They coulda easily put an "emoji package" into Appstore free to download and left it to user's choice.

Emoji's are as important to the OS as all 26 letters. If someone sends you an emoji you don't have on your OS it has to handle it in some way. User choice is still there, you can choose to use them or not.

Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)