Today, Apple is pushing out a new update to iOS, its software for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch—but this update is targeted at fixing an issue on just one device: the iPhone 8 Plus.
iOS 12.3.2 doesn’t seem to do anything else worth remarking upon. Apple’s notes simply say:
iOS 12.3.2 resolves an issue that could cause Camera to capture Portrait mode photos without depth effect on some iPhone 8 Plus devices.
Updates don’t get much more minor than this. Apple typically releases updates that contain new features for macOS, iOS, watchOS, and tvOS simultaneously. But sometimes the company updates only one operating system at a time when deploying a targeted bug fix, as is the case here. If you don’t have an iPhone 8 Plus, this update isn’t for you.
Portrait Mode is Apple’s camera feature that uses machine-learning-based techniques and the dual cameras on some iPhone models to analyze photos and create a depth-of-field effect. It’s related to Portrait Lighting, which only works on the iPhone X, iPhone 8 Plus, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR. Portrait Lighting lets you change the lighting, depth of field, or other features via various presets after the photo has been taken. We’ve been consistently unimpressed by it in our reviews—it fails to address glasses frames, it leaves strange artifacts around frizzy hair, and so on. Machine-learning-based features like this are still not perfect.
Apple last updated iOS with iOS 12.3.1, which hit supported devices two weeks ago. That update fixed a bug related to VoLTE calls, addressed a problem that allowed unknown senders’ messages to appear even if you have enabled “Filter Unknown Senders,” and fixed an issue that prevented some users from reporting junk texts. Apple last released a major update with new features just shy of a month ago: iOS 12.3 added a completely overhauled TV app, implemented AirPlay for new devices like Samsung TVs, and fixed numerous bugs.