Latest iOS update solves Beautygate, but Snapchat dysmorphia remains

One would imagine that most people would be more than happy with selfies that make them look better. As we reported a while ago, however, Apple became embroiled in a controversy that was quickly dubbed “Beautygate” by technology aficionados after its new iPhone XS was discovered to produce selfies that looked as if someone had used Photoshop to create an uncannily perfect picture.

iPhone XS owners were surprisingly unhappy with the fact their skin appeared unnaturally smooth. The problem was traced to a software issue with the device’s smart HDR camera, which improves photo quality by taking a number of images at once and then combining the best parts of each one to create that perfect look.

It has now been established that what caused the issue was Apple’s software selecting the wrong picture as the “base photo” of the series of images that it takes in order to construct an HDR picture. The tech giant has now fixed the problem with iOS 12.1, which was just released.

Tweets have since emerged showing the remarkable difference the update produces. Instead of choosing an image with a particularly long exposure time, the software will now pick a sharper photo, which produces a less smooth but more natural-looking image.

Of course, iPhone owners still love to make their selfies look better by using Snapchat and similar apps, though this practice has a more sinister side. Earlier in 2018, doctors reported that some teenagers were suffering from a mental disease that they called “Snapchat dysmorphia” which, in its most severe form, caused some of them to undergo surgery to make them appear similar to the pictures that they post online.

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