iOS 8.1 was perhaps the most sought-after update since, well iOS 8 itself which had its own set of issues. iOS 8.1 brings in slightly new features, updates to already existing ones, and some much needed bug fixes over 8.0.2. Here’s a run down of all that has changed with the release of iOS 8.1.
Apple Pay
The update brings in support for Apple Pay on iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus, and will only work within the United States. iPad Air 2 and iPad mini 3 will also join the party but it will be limited to online payments only.
Photos
The much anticipated iCloud Photo Library is now available as a beta service for users, and anyone updating to iOS 8.1 can try it out.
Camera Roll is back, finally! It can be found in the Photos app and My Photo Stream album when iCloud Photo Library is not enabled.
You will be alerted when running low on storage space before capturing Time-Lapse videos.
Messages
iPhone users can now send and receive SMS and MMS text messages from their iPad, iPod touch and Mac, courtesy of the new Continuity features baked right into OS X Yosemite and iOS 8.
Earlier releases of iOS 8 saw moments where Search would sometimes not yield a result. This however, has now been fixed.
Read messages will now be marked as read. Earlier, messages read would sometimes remain marked as unread.
Group messaging has also been fixed, and should work without a hitch, unlike before where it just wouldn’t work at times.
Wi-Fi
No more Wi-Fi performance issues that occurred often when connected to different types of base stations, with users even complained about Wi-Fi disconnections. All of these issues have been fixed with iOS 8.1.
Bluetooth
Bluetooth visibility and disconnection issues have been fixed. Earlier devices on iOS 8.0 would go off another device’s Bluetooth radar, with a lot of complains coming in from people trying to connect their devices to the car’s music system.
Screen Rotation
A bug that causes screen rotation to sometimes stop working, has been fixed. This has been a very annoying bug if you’re in the possession of an iPhone 6 Plus.
Network Selection
Option to choose between 2G, 3G or 4G LTE networks for cellular data and voice connection has been added. This should help to conserve some battery life as well, depending on the device’s usage.
Safari Browser
A bug that would stop video playback on the Safari browser at times has been fixed. Hence, you can rest assured that your YouTube videos will play without a hitch this time around.
Passbook Passes
You can now use AirDrop to send passes from Passbook to other devices.
Keyboard
An option to enable Dictation in Settings for Keyboards separate from Siri has also been added in this iOS release.
HealthKit
HealthKit apps will now access data in the background without user intervention.
Accessibility
Guided Access has been beefed up, and now works without any sort of bugs.
VoiceOver now works with third-party keyboards, which failed to work at times before.
Stability and audio quality have been improved when using MFI Hearing aids with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus.
Issues regarding tone dialing has been fixed when VoiceOver was being used.
Bluetooth keyboards and Braille displays with VoiceOver enabled now offer improved reliability.
iOS Updates
An issue that prevented the use of OS X Caching Server for iOS server has been fixed.
Full iOS 8.1 Changelog
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