An even better solution would be to just show the "unlock with passcode" button at all times, and not just after Face ID has spent 15 seconds not recognising you because you have a mask on.

They fixed this a few versions ago. Now if it sees a mask, it shows the passcode input immediately.

That was their claim, however my observation is that it just takes longer to fail before offering "swipe up to get the passcode interface". I have to waste many seconds of staring at my phone just to have the privilege of swiping up to spin the passcode interface display slot machine. You know what would work? Just showing the passcode interface as soon as the screen turns on.

> That was their claim, however my observation is that it just takes longer to fail before offering "swipe up to get the passcode interface"

If I have a mask on, swiping up immediately brings up the pass code screen. In this case immediately is <0.5 secs.

And for me, it regularly doesn't, taking the full timeout period.

Never does for me either, possibly because without a mask I have a beard so it struggles to tell if it's a mask or my regular face. ProTip though: swipe up again immediately and you get the passcode prompt.

I wonder if this is an issue for the older apple watches or if it happens for the new ones too.

I believe the immediate parent was talking about Face unlock outside of this update where the Watch is added. I have the same issue. Sometimes, (I guess?) it can tell I'm wearing a mask and pops up a number pad quickly, other times it authenticates my masked face, other times it just hangs trying to authenticate and after a few seconds I get a number pad.

FWIW I have a new Apple Watch and have this issue. I just installed the update so I haven't tested the Watch authentication. If it can't detect a mask I'll have the same issue as before waiting for a number pad.

Same here.

FYI if you tap the text in the center of the screen that says "Face ID" while it's scanning, it'll bring up the passcode screen immediately.

Doesn't work on my iPad.

Still sounds weird to me. I use an Android phone, I can unlock my phone at anytime using either face, fingerprint, or passcode.

What exactly is the reason/rationale that it has to fail on facial recognition first before proceeding to use passcode?

I am guessing the rationale is that Face ID is supposed to be so good that you won't need to use your passcode. In regular use, Face ID unlocks my phone the moment I lift it; showing an "enter passcode" option button would be redundant because it's already unlocked. Obviously this falls apart with masks.

I buy this theory, but it sounds like the result of some kind of internal politics, not anyone trying to do what’s best for the user.

> What exactly is the reason/rationale that it has to fail on facial recognition first before proceeding to use passcode?

C O U R A G E

Joke aside, it seems that Face ID was a tremendous technical effort so you could have instant access to your phone. Besides unlocking, there's no other serious application (memojis aside). The fingerprint reader was probably removed just to prop acceptance of Face ID. Also, Face ID is less secure. If you're detained or mugged, just looking at your phone will unlock it before you can react and look away.

IMO, the 3D scanner should be on the other side, enhancing your pictures with 3D depth.

If you're detained or mugged you have other problems to worry about. They can also threaten you with a knife to get your pin code or put your fingerprints on the phone. If anything face ID requires your eyes to be open, they can knock you out and use your fingerprints more easily.

Law enforcement in most developed countries won't resort to violence to get your credentials but are happy to point your phone at your face.

By the "they can just use violence" logic, no computer is secure and we should throw them all into the ocean. Security can improve the intermediate cases- focusing solely on the worst case is unproductive.

They can also enforce you to use your fingerprint or face (in The Netherlands) but not PIN or password (in The Netherlands), both with proper (minimal) force. In UK, there's a law to force a user to give away their password. Which, IMO, is the same as being enforced to help your own conviction.

I always preferred the fingerprint sensor over Face ID. You can unlock the phone before even taking it out of the pocket. At my desk, I can unlock the phone without leaning forward so it sees me. The only time that Face ID works (better) is when it's freezing cold and you don't want to take your gloves off to unlock the phone.

If you’re detained or mugged hold both the power and a volume button for 3 seconds.

Hard to do when you're busy getting mugged.

You should set lockdown mode (enforce PIN/password authentication) before getting mugged. I don't know it's possible on iPhone, but possible on Android.

Press the power button 5 times quickly. Warning: LOUD.

except I was trying to use my phone to record being illegally detained

> If you're detained or mugged, just looking at your phone will unlock it before you can react and look away.

As far as hypothetical situations go, I prefer this over them cutting off my finger.

More seriously, in a situation where I'm detained or mugged, there will be a lot of external factors which are pushing me to unlock my phone, be it via passcode or biometrics.

FWIW, "SOS mode" (holding the power and volume up buttons) will purge information needed for biometrics to work and mandate a PIN on both TouchID and FaceID devices.

Most fingerprint (and other biometric devices) sensors do liveness checks

That expects all the muggers to know this fact and would avoid cutting fingers.

> IMO, the 3D scanner should be on the other side, enhancing your pictures with 3D depth.

That's what the LIDAR sensor on the latest phones is for. It only gets used in photos for the portrait-mode stuff, admittedly.

Off topic, and I know we're in the middle of an Apple-bashing thread, but the portrait mode on iPhone 12 is amazing.

Portrait mode is Apple-speak for pseudo-depth-of-field, which is the effect that real cameras do that make the subject in focus but the background blurry.

It makes photos look way more professional.

FaceID used 3D depth in perception, it’s not camera what it uses.

> Also, Face ID is less secure. If you're detained or mugged, just looking at your phone will unlock it before you can react and look away

Much easier to force someone to unlock the phone with their fingerprint than to force them to unlock with faceid if you have “Require attention” on.

You can’t physically force someone to look in a certain direction, but you definitely can force them to tap their finger on a surface.

> You can’t physically force someone to look in a certain direction

Excuse me, but this is ridiculously easier than forcing someone to use their fingerprint; just wait until they are distracted, show them the phone and ask them "what is this?". It unlocks in less than a second with "Require Attention" activated. We prank each other this way when we forget our phones around the house.

We're not talking about pranks, we're talking about someone getting robbed. It will be pretty hard for the robber to "distract you" and spring the phone on you.

Long passcodes are still better.

You can't make a general assertion like that because “better” depends on different factors:

* If you're concerned about someone who can see you typing, a biometric is better because they have far fewer chances to watch you — especially if you don't reboot outside of your home.

* If you're concerned about actual adoption, a biometric is better because you remove the constant frictional password entry cost which causes a large fraction of users to use short, easily-entered passwords.

* If you're concerned about someone who has enough access to construct a usable fingerprint / face facsimile but can't coerce you into providing a password or shoulder-surf it with a drone, a long password is better.

The only Android phone with secure face unlock was the Pixel 4, which didn’t have a fingerprint sensor. Some Samsung devices had iris unlock, which was also fairly secure, but even more finicky than face unlock.

Correction: the Huawei Mate series also includes 3D face unlock. However, at least the initial version on the Mate 20 was not as secure as Face ID.

Guess you miss the memo. The whole thing is avoid the authority. Is there an authority behind that I do not certain. But lots of our brothers and sisters do and did.

> What exactly is the reason/rationale that it has to fail on facial recognition first before proceeding to use passcode?

To better train the facial recognition system, perhaps.

Yes, a facial recognition failure followed by success or passcode unlock will result in the failures being used for model training.

Androids also have the option where you tell them not to lock if you're in your home (or other named places). Does iPhone support that?

I have an Android and don't have this option. Seems to be a manufacturer-specific feature.

It's supposed to be part of base Android 5.0+. There is a problem and workaround: https://www.computerworld.com/article/3199592/android-smart-...

Yep definitely not on my Xiaomi Android 10 phone. I can do the steps in Google Maps but that doesn't trigger the Smart Lock. Also nothing in my settings for Smart Lock. Oh well.

Yes, although home is probably the place where one tends to wear a mask the least.

Great idea. Not everybody could us it but would be great for me.

I think it's slightly weird UI/UX to show the password prompt if FaceID will just instantly unlock the phone anyway (at least when not wearing a mask).

I have about a 60% success rate on their "fix" to this, varying wildly depending on which mask I am wearing. The better a mask fits, the less likely the solution is to work, because the phone seems to think it's an unmasked face, just not my unmasked face.

Strange, I'm up to date yet it still spends ages searching for my face when I have a mask on. Perhaps my mask isn't masklike enough?

Happens to me all the time too, super annoying. If I'm outside and the suns out its even worse.

doesn't do that for me. just got a new 12 mini running iOS 14.4 and... I still always have to do multiple gyrations to get to 'passcode'. Still regretting moving away from the SE with the touch button in that regard.

ack. can't edit any more. So... I noticed that iOS unlock itself does behave that way (per the parent) BUT... individual apps that use face unlock still don't deal with masks. There's probably some varying levels of security with face unlock?

Interesting, mine seems to have like a 50% chance of unlocking anyways with my mask on, I thought they did some sort of improved face-with-mask detection or something

It is a cross between detecting the face is obscured, and recognizing the face if deformed by a tight-fitting mask. If you can get around the obscured face check, you can use the alternative FaceID profile while wearing a mask to deal with any nose/cheek deformation.

If a mask is on the tip of my nose and loose fitting, it seems to work.

For me it totally depends on the type of mask. Extremely annoying.

This has never worked for me.

Only problem is, mine takes fifteen seconds to notice the mask

I've never had FaceID take fifteen seconds to respond either positively or negatively (mask or not). Just an anecdote to counter your's

they actually do this, but it doesn’t look like a button. the “face id” text that is shown when it tries to recognize your face is clickable and it brings the password form. awesome ux...

Wow, thanks for the tip. I would never in a million years have discovered this otherwise. I don't know if Apple's UX design has gone downhill lately or if I'm just getting older and stupider.

A good idea would be “discovery mode” where buttons appear everywhere which explain what can be done if you don’t want the floating buttons around.

In Settings -> Accessibility -> Display & Text Size you have an option "Button Shapes" that will show a button outline on any clickable text.

I always enable this when setting up an iPhone for a parent (or myself).

One of the least-discoverable features in the phone. One of many such features, sadly.

..thank you so much

If you tap the “Face ID” text, it pops up the passcode entry form. I discovered this by accident a couple years ago.

It's order of magnitude less than 15 seconds for me. And they have specifically implemented mask detection so if FaceID spots a face with a mask on it immediately shows the passcode keyboard.

Personally, I'm getting the passcode prompt in less than 1 second.

Just curious, why not just show numpad/pattern input all the time then?

Because in the standard lock screen you see notifications. iOS switches from the lock screen to the numpad when it detects a facemask, or after a timeout from the unlock gesture (swipe up).

It's confusing to show inputs that will then likely disappear in less than a second.

I’ve never seen it take 15 seconds… it takes 2 seconds with a mask and 3 seconds with no face visible at all, for me. Versus 1 second when Face ID works.

> you MUST enable a passcode on your Apple Watch to use this feature at all (and they're relying on the Apple Watch being less aggressive to re-lock than the iPhone).

When you refer to the Apple Watch being “less aggressive to re-lock,” you’re really overselling it. The Watch does not re-lock for the entire time it’s on your wrist after you first unlock it (which you can do with FaceID on your phone). I go weeks without typing a passcode on my Watch.

Your battery lasts weeks? I unlock once per day, which is when I put the watch on my wrist.

The watch unlocks if you unlock your phone while wearing it.

I just fixed it by turning off FaceID.

Apple reached phone perfection with the iPhone 4; they reached access perfection with touchID. Things have gotten worse since then.

I hate TouchID, never works when my fingers are sweaty or I'm cooking or anything like that.

FaceID is perfect.

FaceID is perfect in no sense of the term.

FaceID works better when your hands are dirty or unavailable (e.g. you're wearing gloves), TouchID works better when your face is covered or your look changed slightly[0].

FaceID has been a strict downgrade for me, there are very few situations where FaceID works and TouchID wouldn't have, the reverse is a daily occurrence. And things would be even worse if I couldn't work from home, as TouchID works just fine with a mask.

[0] in bed without my glasses FaceID works 0% of the time, even resetting the entire thing and re-registering my face with and without glasses, it works all of 2 days before it stops recognising me without glasses.

You’re holding your iPhone too close to your face when you’re in bed.

my vision is poor enough that without contacts/glasses I can't simultaneously both

  1. hold the phone far enough away from my face for faceid to work, and 
  2. focus my eyes on the screen

so if I wake up in the middle of the night, I always have to use my passcode to unlock my phone.

Same issue here. I have found a way to sort of look past the phone that reliably unlocks at night.

Sounds like an ADA violation to me.

Why not have both? This whole topic would be a non-issue if we still had Touch ID as an option.

If a device supported and was provisioned with both, and unlocked with either, you would have double the potential for biometric attacks/vulnerabilities (remember that FaceID is an order of magnitude stronger biometric).

If you support just one with the other disabled, it is wasted hardware/space in a device with extremely limited size/cost budget. If you require both, you haven't fixed the usability issues.

Now you're taking up a fair bit of front of the phone real estate (and adding some cost) for a feature that I'm guessing most people don't care about. [ADDED: As others note there are potentially other options though that don't involve putting the home button back.]

My Samsung S10e has the fingerprint reader on the power button. I have it set to recognize my left index finger and right thumb. Works great.

The touchID on my new MacBook Pro is extremely useful. Trained on right index finger.

Fingerprint readers have been living under the screen in other phones for several years now.

How about anywhere cold enough to require gloves, and reasonable enough to require face masks?

In those dire situations I would opt for passcode unlocking with smartphone gloves. Face ID, Touch ID and passcode, only the most extreme scenarios would need more.

That’s great. I’d prefer to use watch unlocking.

Also, these are not “extreme” or “dire” or even uncommon conditions - most of Northern Europe, Canada, and the north-eastern USA experience several months of such conditions every year.

Iris auth on Galaxy S8/S9 was great but it's gone.

Let me add to that several more anecdata: my parents could never get TouchID to work; it required them to re-register on a weekly basis. I don't know if it's because of their advanced age or physiology, but in winter, my fingers were also not reliable due to dryness.

FaceID has been quite good other than the masks issue. I just wish Apple would allow a grace period for rechecking auth.

There's no reason that a phone couldn't have touchid and faceid, other than the desire for every square mm of space to be a screen (any didn't they have touch ID on the back of the phone for a while too?)

Thats a very big "other than" virtually all users like and want to keep the full screen size. Their best next move would be to include underscreen fingerprint scanning and face id in the next iphone.

+1, FaceID is perfect for me and so is Watch unlock (on the Mac)

I've run into this problem with my iPhone 8 but almost never with my iPhone SE 1st gen - talking about constant regression.

Latest iPhone SE and iPad Air are both TouchID only - and wonderful.

I agree, it looks like it ticks all the boxes.

I usually only replace phones when the battery starts going. But I'm thinking of getting the SE anyway, just in case it isn't available when this one (X) finally goes.

Oh thank you. I've been making up my mind over which phone to get next. You've just helped me rule out the SE. The TouchID is one feature I've never had reliable experience with. I have sweaty hands, and it seems TouchID has trouble with fingers with sweat on them. But even when I dry my hands before attempting it it wouldn't always work. I thought FaceID would be worse until $WORK gave my team an Apple with FaceID. I got to see first hand how much better FaceID is. It's doesn't have a 100% success rate but it is much closer to 100% than TouchID in my experience. I just pick up my phone and it's unlocked almost instantly. A much better UX than I had with my previous iPhone 8 and 5s which had TouchID. I was disappointed they didn't improve it for the 8, it was just as bad as the 5s.

Mask-independent TouchID on the $399 iPhone SE has been 100% reliable. Even works in the dark, including close distances where FaceID forces you to move the phone back so it can focus. Allows the phone to be unlocked with one hand without looking, when multitasking.

One of the last reasons that I still use a 6s+ is the TouchID. I still like my headphone jack too, but the TouchID is the biggest feature I don't want to lose

I was a holdout with my 6S and it's Touch ID and headset jack. Finally upgraded to a XR last year due to general slowness of the 6S, especially with CarPlay.

I bought a aftermarket headset lightning adapter. Wireless charging largely eliminated my complaints about charging. Fast charging with an 18w brick is great as well!

I only miss Touch ID when wearing a mask. Face ID is otherwise so much more reliable and fast.

I second that SO much !!!! Everything is perfect on that phone.

I'm sorry to be pedantic but there is no way anyone would pick an iPhone 4 over a 4S, and neither of those had touchID.

> Apple reached phone perfection with the iPhone 4;

Thank you, I tell people that I liked developing on that platform and the only reason I still don't is because XCode no longer supports it and I get critized like I'm a luddite.

It's a phone, you can't do a lot more on device other than add new sensors and new networking technology... it's like buying a new car because it has a 2021 instead of a 2020, it hasn't changed that much....

Cameras, to name just one feature, have improved to a ridiculous extent since the iPhone 4.

Other things: CPU, GPU, and for the love of god, display technology.

Touch ID had to go because the home button was removed. They are now developing on screen fingerprint detection to bring back touch ID as a secondaryunlock mechanism.

The newest ipad Air has touch id in the power/lock button on the side. I know production timelines probably made it impossible to do in reaction to COVID, but can you imagine if they had put this on iphone 12 late last year? So many iphone users would have bought one just to fix face ID with masks.

I hope they do - I've been holding onto my 8+ as FaceID is annoying.

I think the sensor-on-the-back mechanism on some Android phones is better than Touch ID ever was.

The iPhone SE is physically the same shape and size as the 4 but with much better internals. To me, that is "peak iPhone".

I still use an SE to control a few things around the house. Without a SIM, with the mobile radios and bluetooth disabled but wifi enabled, and with Apple's idiotic News app that nobody wants disabled, the battery lasts for 20 days. Peak iPhone.

The original SE (not the 2020 SE) is the same form factor as the iPhone 5 and 5S, not the 4 or 4S

Whoops, you are right. I forgot there was a size difference between the 4 and 5. I had decided to think of them all collectively as the sharp-edged iPhones.

Isn’t the 2016 SE still useful as a phone?

Probably, I just happen to have owned the 16GB model that is now impractical for me, since iOS itself takes half of it. Replaced it for my daily carrying, but kept it around since it's so nice.

Yeah, 16GB goes fast. I’ve heard from a few others how much they like the older SE.

Yes, it's my phone since 2017 and I happy with that. I will use it until EoL.

>MUST enable a passcode on your Apple Watch to use this feature at all

In all fairness, I believe they require you to set a passcode on your watch if you use it for Apple Pay. And, honestly, especially right now--while I don't always use my watch to pay mostly because the Magsafe wallet makes pulling out a card very easy--it's pretty convenient.

I have found the watch the most convenient NFC payment option of them all, if a place supports NFC payments at all. So many places still put the readers too close to the cashiers and getting a phone near them is awkward, but usually you can wave your wrist at them without problem. I still love how spooked cashiers sometimes get when you do that for the first time around them (and they often don't realize they support NFC payments because no one wants to try the awkward phone angle) and it looked like you just waved your arm to pay.

Our corporate iPhones require passwords every 2 minutes, because apparently having to type the passcode in dozens of times a day in the public is a better security model.

One of the core parts of Apple is having fewer choices, but striving to have the available options be good options.

Apple doesn't always succeed with picking the ideal middle point between too few and too many choices (most frequently, it's skewed towards the 'too few' side) however.

Well now that I’m so used to a level of privacy that locked iPhone provides (notification details are hidden), I just don’t mind having the phone relocked each time. It’s a trade-off that works for me.

Also, it wouldn’t surprise me if significant percent of users actually checks their phone at least one in 15 minutes. This would mean that their phones would be at unlocked almost all the time.

- This is about choice. Namely, expanding choice. So if that is your comfort level, keep doing what you're doing.

- When Face Unlock is enabled the iPhone doesn't take 15 minutes to re-lock. That's what is being requested, not what we have. 15 minutes would be much longer than the status quo.

The "Require Passcode" feature actually saved my data (and possibly my life) when I got robbed at gunpoint. The robber turned on my iPhone and was able to unlock it, so he assumed there was no PIN. He then turned off the phone to disable tracking (and inadvertently locked the phone, protecting my data and rendering the phone useless to pawn shops).

While it might just be theater, not requiring a password immediately seems like a pretty big security regression.

Yeah what a hilarious suggestion. Might as well just not lock your phone at all.

Strictly speaking, covid is not apples fault of course. However, as a long time apple user, I was always against forcing me to move from fingerprint to face ID. And my next iPhone will be an SE for exactly that reason. So I cant resist and feel a bit of "I always knew thats not a good idea". Face ID was a bold move which was punished by, well, lets call it reality.

I have a 2016SE, with touch ID. It works perfectly well when I wear a mask. If fingerprint doesn't work it immediately pops up the passcode box.

It such a shame that apple are good at removing useful features rather than just adding them.

There is no way Apple could have possibly predicted faceid would fail like this. Under normal circumstances it works really well.

If Face ID doesn't work it does pop up the passcode box. They tweaked it a versions back so it was faster to pop up when "mask detected" (though how well that worked as with any ML-based solution varied from person to person). Additionally the upward "home swipe" and "tap the Face ID indicator" options have both always immediately given the passcode box for me. (My favorite thing that happens sometimes is impatience with Face ID will have me swipe for the passcode box, the box will come up, and I get maybe one or two inputs in before Face ID catches up and finishes the unlock.)

This new Watch feature is great for people like me who are paranoid about punching in my passcode in front of a shop full of cameras and strangers, but it's a nice-to-have feature not a "required" feature as some of the above comments seem to complain it is.

Do we need the whole face? Could it work with a quorum of points?

My face unlock works fine with sunglasses. If it detects a mask could it fall back to judging the remainder more thoroughly?

I have a Samsung Galaxy as work phone and it has a fingerprint sensor unlock in addition to FaceID. Would love that in Apple iPhone due to masks becoming so prevalent.

> This doesn't even solve the issue.

Having used it for several weeks, this feature elegantly solves the issue.

> - This doesn't even solve the issue.

Right you are, but for a different reason: Face masks entirely break Apple Pay. If you have an Apple Watch, lucky you, you can use the watch to pay instead. If you don’t? Well, tough luck.

Unlock with Watch apparently does not work with Apple Pay.

/e: Wasn’t aware of activating Pay using the code. Oops. :D

> Face masks entirely break Apple Pay

I might be misunderstanding you, and it’s far from ideal, but you can still use your passcode - I do it all the time.

Ah, indeed. I always thought this was not possible due to silly security requirements. Could’ve sworn this wasn’t possible back on my old iPhone 7.

I'm sure passcode has always been a fallback option. I used to see it all the time when I had an iPhone with a Apple Pay compatible card some years ago.

> Unlock with Watch apparently does not work with Apple Pay.

I find Apple Pay so much easier to use with the Watch that I never can remember how to use it on the phone.

I've been using Apple Pay from my watch since I got it, but only 2 weeks ago I found out I can pay for the Bus and MRT with my watch also! So I no longer need to carry around 1 additional card. (Singapore)

Something I just found out on Friday when my iPhone battery ran out while at the store: my Apple Watch could still make a purchase even though it didn’t have a cell connection. Pretty great!

Yep, I realized the same once when I didn't have my phone with me. It's just representing card data to the scanner, so it doesn't need a network connection.

Yup, some niceties like transaction finalized notifications don't catch up to your watch until you have a network connection, but nothing show stopping. (Your phone often still gets them immediately, but obviously if you don't have it with you, the tree fell in the forest and you don't know if it made a sound.)

It’s useful for some situations where there are obstacles, for example drive-thru checkouts at fast food restaurants or gas stations.

Yeah, in general too many places still put the NFC readers too close to the cashiers because they still expect people to hand over cards like its 1999. Getting a watch near to some of those readers is far easier than most phones.

You can still use Apple Pay with a passcode.

If you want this, why not pay with the watch itself?

You can't just enter your passcode for Apple Pay?

You definitely can, it says “Pay with Passcode” [1]

1. https://www.imore.com/sites/imore.com/files/styles/large/pub...

You can. I do it multiple times per week. It adds an extra 10s to “being ready for the register” but it’s hardly worth complaining about in a pandemic.

I just wish Apple Pay had a longer timeout because I want to have it open before I reach the register but by the time they're ready to scan it reauths.

You can, but the above poster and original poster seem to be saying that fallback to passcode is a failure in it self.

You can

Yep, I had to disable Face ID for Apple Pay because it was too frustrating to use in stores with a mask on.