iOS 11.1 Public Beta 2 Is Out - How To Install The New Emojis

It's time again to charge up your iPhone, make a backup, and download and install the latest Public Beta! Apple's iOS 11.1 Public Beta 2 is in the wild and this time, it's bringing all the emojis to the yard.

Usually, early point releases of iOS are staid affairs, mostly focusing on finally killing persistent bugs that managed to make it through the beta process unscathed. Every once in a while, however, features that weren't quite ready for the initial iOS release sneak their way in to that first major update. One of these that came back in Public Beta 2 is the missing 3D-Touch app switcher, which was removed from early iOS 11 betas. But the one that has everyone buzzing is the new set of emojiis being added.

Announced in part back in July on World Emoji Day (yes, it's a thing), Apple released another press release last week to reiterate that even more of the new Unicode 10 emojis will grace their latest version of iOS when it's released later this year.

But you don't want to wait! You say. You need wizard/mermaid/vampire emojis right now!

If you're willing to sacrifice some battery life (betas usually aren't optimized for battery performance) and are willing to put up with bugs and the risk of having to restore your phone if something goes wrong, then you can follow the steps below to start testing the iOS 11.1 beta immediately (but be prepared to wait at least a little bit, Public Beta 2 is much more substantial, size-wise, than previous beta releases).

Getting Started

If you deleted your beta profile after iOS 11 was released, or if you've never participated in an Apple beta, you'll need to get one.

To sign up, head over to https://beta.apple.com/ and use your Apple ID to create a beta account (if you don’t already have one from last year's iOS 10 program). You can follow my installation gallery for details (it's for the initial iOS 11 Public Beta, but the same steps still apply).

Even though iOS 11 is out, iOS 11.1 is beta software and Apple makes it extremely clear in the agreement you scroll past on the way to the Agree button that it can do anything up to and including bricking your device and corrupting your data.

Back It Up

Before you download the beta client, take advantage of the Archive tool for iOS backups in iTunes. Plug in your phone and click the Back Up Now button. That way, you'll have one last stable backup that won’t get overwritten.

One thing that Apple won't tell you is that, if you want to save all your Health data, you'll need to encrypt the backup when given the choice. So make sure you encrypt it!

Restoring Your Backup

If everything does go wrong and you end up with an unresponsive slab of glass, metal, and silicon, you'll need your backup to get back on track. Turn off your iPhone, hold down the Home button and plug it in to your computer. If you have an iPhone 7 or 8, you'll need to press and hold the Lock/Wake button and then the Volume Down button simultaneously (since the Home button is virtual).  When the Connect to iTunes screen displays, head over to iTunes and follow the steps to restore your archived backup.

Remember, any time you want, you can hop off the beta release train by deleting your beta profile. But if you do it before an iOS 11 update, you'll be stuck with your current software unless you restore from a backup. Keep that in mind before installing beta software on your main iDevice.

Wondering what you need to watch out for when beta testing? Read my "Three Things" guide.