What's new in News and FaceTime in iOS 12

Apple's Messages App has been the focus of several major updates over the last few years, but this year Messages receives just a minor update. However, FaceTime receives its biggest overhaul with iOS 12 .

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WWDC 2018: Best new iOS 12 features and more

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News

The News app in iOS 12 does not receive a lot of new features or changes. Instead, there are a few minor improvements that should make messaging easier.

There seems to be a new app dock for iMessage apps, including a new photo link that allows faster access to your photo library.

During the keynote, Apple demonstrated a new camera feature in the News app. Using camera linking in a conversation, users can capture photos or videos with filters, stickers, and drawings to spice up photos shared with a loved one. Animoji also has three new characters, while a new memoji feature lets you create an animoji that looks just like you. We will cover Memoji in a separate article in more detail.

FaceTime

After waiting too long for FaceTime, it finally gets group video calls. That's right – with iOS 12 you can make a FaceTime call with up to 32 people.

The redesigned FaceTime theme displays thumbnails for anyone who calls "the roster" at the bottom of the screen. When someone starts to speak, their video, called a tile, moves to the top of the screen. The size of the tile is determined by the people who are active, the tile of the person speaking becomes slowly larger the longer it speaks.

Oh, and you can use those awesome new camera effects that Apple has added to the News App in FaceTime.