News

Apple iOS 10.1 – Should You Upgrade and What’s Included?

By Steve Krause

Updated October 25, 2023

Yesterday Apple released iOS 10.1 for its iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch customers. Having released iOS 10 just a little over a month ago, iOS 10.1 is considered by many as a significant bugfix and security maintenance release.

Who Can Download iOS 10.1?

Customers running iPhone 5 or later, iPad 4th generation, and later iPod touch 6th generation and later can install the update. It won’t allow you to begin the installation unless you have 50% or more battery life remaining.

On my iPhone 6 Plus (yes, I’ve not yet upgraded to an iPhone 7 yet…), the download was a little over 200 megabytes. The download and installation took exactly 17 minutes. Pretty quick and simple.

New Features Included with iOS 10.1

The majority of the update includes bug fixes and security updates. That said, 10.1 also includes one or two updates/new features for the Camera, Photos, Maps, and Messages apps. I’ve included the full breakdown from the release notes so you can dig into the details.

Apple iOS 10.1 Release Notes for iPhone and iPad Devices

This update includes Portrait Camera for iPhone 7 Plus (beta), transit directions for Japan, stability improvements and bug fixes.

iOS 10.1 introduces new features and improvements including:

Camera and Photos

• Introduces Portrait Camera for iPhone 7 Plus that creates a depth effect that keeps your subject sharp while creating a beautifully blurred background (beta)
• People names in the Photos app are saved in iCloud backups
• Improved the display of wide color gamut photos in the grid views of the Photos app
• Fixes an issue where opening the Camera app would show a blurred or flashing screen for some users
• Fixes an issue that caused Photos to quit for some users when turning on iCloud Photo Library

Maps

• Transit support for every major train, subway, ferry, and national bus line, as well as local bus systems for Tokyo, Osaka, and Nagoya
• Sign-based transit navigation including layouts of all underground structures and walkways that connect large transit stations
• Transit fare comparison when viewing alternative transit routes

Messages

• New option to replay bubble and full screen effects
• Messages effects can play with Reduce Motion enabled
• Fixes an issue that could lead to contact names appearing incorrectly in Messages
• Addresses an issue where Messages could open to a white screen
• Addresses an issue that could prevent the report junk option from displaying with unknown senders
• Fixes an issue where videos captured and sent in the Messages app could be missing audio

Apple Watch

• Adds distance and average pace to workout summaries in the Activity app for outdoor wheelchair run pace and outdoor wheelchair walk pace
• Fixes issues that may have prevented Music playlists from syncing to Apple Watch
• Addresses an issue that was preventing invitations and data from appearing in Activity Sharing
• Fixes an issue that was allowing Activity Sharing to update over cellular when manually disabled
• Resolves an issue that was causing some third-party apps to crash when inputting text

Other improvements and fixes

• Improves Bluetooth connectivity with 3rd party accessories
• Improves AirPlay Mirroring performance when waking a device from sleep
• Fixes an issue where playback would not work for iTunes purchased content when the “Show iTunes Purchases” setting is turned off
• Fixes an issue where certain selfie apps and face filters used with the FaceTime HD Camera on iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus did not display a live preview
• Fixes an issue in Health where individual strokes are converted to separate characters when using the Chinese handwriting keyboard
• Improves performance of sharing websites from Safari to Messages
• Fixes an issue in Safari that caused web previews in tab view to not display correctly
• Fixes an issue that caused certain Mail messages to be reformatted with very small text
• Fixes an issue that caused some HTML email to be formatted incorrectly
• Fixes an issue that in some cases caused the search field to disappear in Mail
• Fixes an issue that could prevent Today View Widgets from updating when launched
• Fixes an issue where Weather widget sometimes failed to load data
• Fixes an issue on iPhone 7 where Home Button click settings would not appear in search results
• Fixes an issue that prevented spam alert extensions from blocking calls
• Resolves an issue that could prevent alarm sounds from going off
• Fixes an issue where audio playback via Bluetooth would cause the Taptic engine to stop providing feedback for some users
• Resolves an issue preventing some users from restoring from iCloud Backup

Should you Update Your Device to iOS 10.1?

With the exception perhaps of the Bluetooth fixes and Maps upgrade for specific cities in Japan, the real value of this update is all the security exploits patched. With that in mind, unless you’re having issues with your device, I would suggest waiting a day or two just to let this update bake in the wild a bit. If by Thursday or Friday, Apple doesn’t pull the update, move forward and patch your devices.

Personally, I take security updates seriously and like to patch my devices no later than 24 hours after release. All my iOS 10 devices took the patch today (five of them) without any issues. The upgrade was smooth and so far so good.

Speaking of security exploits, if you want to see the full breakdown, here’s the link from Apple on what they patched in iOS 10.1. If you enjoy reading up on the various attack vectors and how hackers could exploit unpatched devices, it’s a good read.