Back in September 2013, Apple introduced the fingerprint-based Touch ID feature to the world at the iPhone 5s launch event, starting the tide of the entire smartphone industry moving towards fingerprint recognition across the board. Four years later, Apple replaced Touch ID with Face ID on the newly released iPhone X, which made face recognition popular in the industry – and since then, Touch ID has disappeared from the three new generations of iPhones.
But in fact, Touch ID has not been abandoned by Apple.
The latest news shows that Apple may use both Face ID functionality and Touch ID based on under-screen fingerprint recognition in the latest iPhone models in 2021.
In other words, Touch ID will return to the iPhone.
Touch ID returns: with under-screen fingerprint recognition
During this recent period, some relatively authoritative sources of information have talked about Touch ID one after another.
As recently as mid-January 2020, Mark Gurman, a Bloomberg reporter who has long followed Apple, reported about Apple’s product plans for the new generation of iPhones; he said that Apple does not plan to make very radical updates to this year’s iPhone, but there is one new feature that is critical – an under-screen fingerprint reader.
Mark Gurman says Apple will add an under-screen fingerprint reader to the next-generation iPhone in order to give users an additional option to unlock their iPhone beyond just passcode and Face ID facial recognition — a gospel.
Of course, even if it’s not because of the mask, many users still prefer to use fingerprint recognition because it’s so convenient.
Mark Gurman also said that while fingerprint recognition is back, Apple will still keep facial recognition in the iPhone because it’s essential for facial recognition and some of the front-facing photo features.
Considering Mark Gurman’s accuracy in breaking news about previous Apple products and launches, the news that the iPhone will re-embrace Touch ID is probably true.
In fact, in addition to Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal also corroborated the news in a recent report.
The report, which was sent out on January 29, cited two unnamed former Apple employees who said that Apple is indeed already working on an under-screen fingerprint technology and is considering both Touch ID and Face ID technology in the same device.
Not only that, but the report also cites a former Apple employee who worked on Touch ID; the employee says Apple has opted to use an optical sensor in its under-screen fingerprint because optical sensing is more stable than ultrasonic sensing.
The employee also emphasized that whatever choice Apple makes, the solution that is adopted will meet the security standards of existing Touch ID technology.
It’s also worth mentioning that, in fact, Apple had a relevant solution for under-screen fingerprint recognition as early as 2014, and a recent Apple patent shows that users can place their fingers anywhere on the screen without affecting fingerprint recognition.
At present, it is not yet known whether Apple achieves the effect shown in the patent in under-screen fingerprint recognition.
From Touch ID to Face ID, security is the core
Touch ID and Face ID, both classic works of Apple in transforming the product experience through innovation – but the reason they are widely recognized is that Apple places extra emphasis on security.
Let’s look at Touch ID first.
In 2013, Apple first introduced Touch ID on the iPhone 5s, with a hardware area called the Secure Enclave to protect password and fingerprint data.
In addition, Touch ID uses “hardware lock” technology, which means that the Touch ID sensor in one device cannot be transferred to another device.
It is clear that from the very beginning, Apple has paid great attention to security issues.
However, the initial release of Touch ID, because the API is not open, Touch ID is only used to unlock the screen; until the release of the iOS8 operating system in September 2014, Touch ID is open to third-party applications, which means that a variety of third-party applications do not have to enter a password to be able to use.
But Apple stressed that Touch ID and fingerprint information will not be read by “third parties”.
At the application level, based on the high security of Touch ID, Apple also combined Apple Pay with Touch ID in iOS8 released in 2014, which enabled Touch ID to open up the payment scenario, the so-called fingerprint payment – since then, Alipay and WeChat have also opened up to third-party applications. Alipay and WeChat have also implemented support for fingerprint payments on the iPhone one after another.
It is worth mentioning that Apple later introduced Apple Pay web payment technology based on Apple Pay, so that users do not need to enter billing, shipping address and contact details when shopping on computer web pages, but can achieve cross-device authentication directly through Touch ID on the phone.
Of course, Apple has equipped later Mac devices with Touch ID – even on Apple’s latest M1 chip-based MacBook Air/Pro in November 2020 – and Touch ID has not been absent.
However, Face ID is more secure than Touch ID.
In 2017, Apple introduced Face ID on the iPhone X. It uses the latest original deep camera system and several advanced technologies to accurately map the geometry of the user’s face to provide a secure and intuitive method of authentication.
In terms of security, Apple says that the probability of Touch ID being randomly cracked is 1/50,000 and Face ID is 1 in a million.
For example, Face ID will update the internal stored facial recognition data as the user uses it, so that the recognition benchmark is basically synchronized with the user’s own facial changes, etc. This will also help enhance its security.
Touch ID returns, but the Home button will finally be history
Since 2018, Face ID has been the only option for biometrics on the new iPhone.
However, it turns out that while Face ID is excellent in terms of security, there are still many users who prefer Touch ID fingerprint recognition – and in the context of the 2020 Epidemic outbreak, Face ID also presents many inconveniences when users wear masks, making Touch ID’s Convenience more prominent.
In this case, the combination of Touch ID and Face ID may be a solution that takes into account both security and convenience.
Interestingly, there have been some flagship models in the Android camp that have used a combined fingerprint recognition + face recognition solution, such as the huawei Mate30 Pro, but the results were not very good – I wonder how the iPhone experience is with both Touch ID and I don’t know how the iPhone experience is with both Touch ID and Face ID.
But one thing is for sure.
Even if Touch ID does return, the Home button on the iPhone is destined to be an afterthought, given that full-screen has become a major trend.
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