Last year, when everyone started wearing masks, it became difficult to use Apple’s Face ID feature to unlock iPhones. The company made unlocking a little faster, immediately displaying the password screen when the iPhone detected that you are wearing a mask.
Now, he plans to allow you to unlock the phone with facial ID while wearing your mask – but you would need an Apple Watch. As noted by Engadget, the new beta developer for iOS 14.5 allows you to do this if you’re using an unlocked Apple Watch.
[Read: India’s new customs duties will make your next phone pricier]
This is how the feature would work: you will have to manually enable an option to unlock your iPhone with a less accurate Face ID along with your Apple Watch for authentication.
You’ll be notified on your watch whenever you successfully unlock your iPhone – which can be really annoying if you unlock it frequently. I prefer to enter a password when using a mask.
As my colleague Callum suggested, it would be cool for Apple to bring Touch ID back. The company included Touch ID under the power button on the iPad Air launched last year. It could come up with a similar solution with the iPhone, or as Mark Gurman of Bloomberg suggested, it could launch its own fingerprint scanner under the screen.
The new facial ID unlocking system is currently being tested, but count on our help to write a guide in our Basic section when it is available to everyone.
Did you know that we have a consumer technology newsletter? It’s called Plugged In – and you can sign it right here.
Published on February 2, 2021 – 05:44 UTC