Apple brought portrait mode to the iPhone as a beta release back in 2016 with the iPhone 7 Plus, which needed to utilize its two camera sensors to achieve a somewhat convincing portrait effect when taking photos.
Portrait mode for photos kept getting better and better. Soon the Pixel 2 by Google was able to mimic a very similar effect with only one camera, and Apple was under pressure. Then, the Cupertino-based company matched the Pixel’s superpowers with the iPhone XR and later the iPhone SE (2020), which can also take good portrait photos with only one camera.