How to fix 'ridiculously huge' emojis as Apple users wake up to 'f****d up' iPhone update

If you've woken up over the past couple of days and thought something looks a little different with your iPhone, you're not alone.

Apple released its latest software update, iOS 18.1.1, late last month, which has now been rolled out across the majority of iPhones worldwide.

The sparkly new update came with plenty of useful features to make our lives easier, such as intelligent email categorisation and more tools to customise your homepage.

The updates join iOS 17's easily accessible currency converter in the calculator app as well as a back button if make a mistake while adding figures up.

Don't worry, these changes aren't all cosmetic, as Apple has also included 'important security fixes' for your device. What's not to like?

Well, according to iPhone users, a lot.

In typical iOS update tradition, Apple aficionados have descended on every form of social media they can get their hands on to complain - with many branding the change the 'disaster' and 'Apple's most buggy release in history'.

The biggest complaints? An unusable photos app and startlingly huge emojis.

Which makes the backlash seem a little dramatic compared to the culture shifting update that was iOS 6 to iOS 7.

What's new with the iOS 18.1.1 update?

One of the biggest complaints about the new update is the change to the photos app. Before we could toggle between different pages such as 'for you', 'albums' and 'search', but now all of this is crammed into the same part of the app.

navigating the ios 18 photo app pic.twitter.com/OpCN9Ct3Dh

— n (@micropIastlcs) December 3, 2024

Which makes scrolling through your memories, cat photos and memes much harder than before.

"Whoever designed the iOS18 photos layout needs to be fired expeditiously," one angry iPhone user wrote on X, while a second added: "My favourite part of the iOS 18 photos app update is that you can’t find f**king anything."

The new, enlarged emojis has also come under fire, with several people wondering why such a change was necessary. "It’s actually so bizarre they made all the control centre buttons tiny but the emojis are huge now…" one exasperated user commented.

"My phone updated while i was asleep and why the f**k are my emojis HUGE??" a second person moaned, while others were wondering if was a workaround to the new changes.

According to Washington Post's rundown on the update, it's bad news for anyone who isn't happy with the current photos layout - but there are workarounds for the Megamind sized emojis.

The bad news is that this involves downloading a third party keyboard, such as Gboard or Microsoft SwiftKey onto your phone and enabling said keyboard on your settings.

However this method won't be a particularly appealing idea for anyone who is concerned about third party apps having access to their data, which means you're stuck hoping the Apple overlords will be merciful and revert to smaller emojis.

Or you could just cut the little smilies out of your online life for now.