Not so smooth: Apple to fix iPhones selfie bug in next iOS update

A customer looks at the new iPhone XS Max at an Apple store in New York on Friday, Sept. 21, 2018. (AP Photo/Patrick Sison)

Malaysians will get their hands on the iPhones XS, XS Max and XR in a couple of days.

If you are one of the lucky ones, don't be alarmed if your selfies look a bit weird.

Some users in the United States have reported that selfies taken with the new iPhones appear to have a softer, overly-smooth appearance. It's as if the selfies have been taken with a beauty filter on.

The issue was covered by YouTuber Lewis Hilsenteger on his channel Unboxing Therapy. In the video, "My iPhone XS Max is doing something weird ...", he wondered if his photo has gone through an automatic beauty mode due to overly smooth skin and fairer skin tone.



He also felt that his selfies taken with an iPhone XS Max looked like he had makeup on. Hilsentenger faced a similar issue with the iPhone XS.

Released in September, the video has over four million views.

Users have since dubbed the front-facing camera problem as BeautyGate.

In a recent report by website The Verge, Apple acknowledged that there is a bug affecting the performance of the front-facing camera on the new iPhones.

Its Smart HDR camera feature is choosing the wrong base frame for the selfie HDR processing. Instead of going with a frame with short shutter speed to freeze motion and preserve detail, it would choose a frame with longer shutter speed. 

As the front camera does not have optical image stabilisation, the camera takes blurrier shots at the same shutter speed as the rear stabilised camera. So users end up with selfies without detailed features so it looks too smooth to be true. Or maybe some of you do wake up looking like a newborn baby.

Apple also told The Verge that the bug will be fixed in the upcoming iOS 12.1 update.

This is not the first time users are having issues with their new iPhones.

Previously, users complained of ChargeGate where the device does not charge as soon as it's plugged in. Instead, users have to wake up the device or unplug the cable repeatedly. Apple said it has fixed the issue with iOS 12.0.1 update.