Apple promises to fix the front camera issue with the iPhone Xs and Xr in iOS 12.1

If you're one of those iPhone Xs and Xr users annoyed by the overblown smooth skin effect on your selfie photo, you may be delighted to know that Apple has reportedly confirmed an upcoming fix to the issue. The bug, dubbed "Beautygate", is expected to disappear in a future update that will arrive as part of the public release of iOS 12.1.

The bug is currently affecting the smart HDR feature of the front camera, though it's not clear how widespread the issue is. Nevertheless, some users are reporting that their selfie photos appear to be overly smooth where it's not supposed to be.

Apple acknowledged the issue and described it as a bug. At its core, the smart HDR camera system was picking a frame taken at a longer shutter speed instead of the one with a short shutter speed, which would otherwise capture a sharper and more detailed photo. As a result, the image appears to be a long-exposure shot, thus the excessive skin smoothing. What makes things worse is the lack of optical image stabilization on the front shooter, which leads to blurry images.

In iOS 12.1, the feature is expected to select a base frame with a faster shutter speed to preserve details. With the iOS 12.1 now on its fifth developer beta stage along with tvOS 12.1, watchOS 5.1, and macOS 10.14.1, the public release of the operating system may happen in the not-so-distant future.

Source: The Verge