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Apple To Ditch Touch ID Altogether For All of Next Year's iPhones (macrumors.com)
Earlier this week, a report said that Apple is planning to equip next year's iPad Pro with the hardware necessary for Face ID. Now, according to KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, it appears the company is taking that one step further with its 2018 iPhones. All of the iPhones Apple plans to produce next year will reportedly abandon the Touch ID fingerprint sensor in favor of facial recognition. Mac Rumors reports: According to Kuo, Apple will embrace Face ID as its authentication method for a competitive advantage over Android smartphones. Kuo has previously said that it could take years for Android smartphone manufacturers to produce technology that can match the TrueDepth camera and the Face ID feature coming in the iPhone X. Face ID, says Kuo, will continue to be a major selling point of the new iPhone models in 2018, with Apple planning to capitalize on its lead in 3D sensing design and production. Kuo's prediction suggests that all upcoming 2018 iPhones will feature a full-screen design with minimal bezels like the iPhone X, meaning no additional models with the iPhone 8/iPhone 8 Plus design would be produced. That would spell the end of the line for Touch ID in the iPhone, which has been available as a biometric authentication option since 2013.
Apple's uses a 3D scan of your face. The android one could be fooled with a photograph.
The issue isn't the quality of implementation, it's that the phone can be unlocked by anyone who holds it up to your face. With either this or fingerprint unlocking the government no longer needs to be able to hack the phone's encryption.
As with fingerprint readers, simply use a passcode if this is a concern to you. You're not required to use this feature.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
What situations are you in that you need your phone unlocked and aren't looking at it?
- Phone is sitting on my desk.
- Phone is on a mount in my car
- Phone is being used for Apple Pay
In all of those situations, my finger is a far quicker method to unlock the phone.
In the case of a car, it's even a safety issue, in my opinion.
Me: "Hey Siri, Open Waze"
SirI: "You'll need to unlock your phone first."
Now: Reach up and touch the home button with my finger, then use Waze voice control.
Then: Take the phone off the mount and point it at my face (while driving), both taking my hand off the wheel for longer and obstructing my view. Or I can unlock with passcode, which certainly takes longer, requires looking at the phone rather than the road, and may violate local laws.
The current iPhone TouchID mechanism is one of the main reasons I use my iPhone more than my Nexus 6. It's simple; it's fast; it's safe. Getting rid of this, even as an option, and going 100% FaceID is a huge step backwards for my use cases.