A leaker with a strong track record is saying Apple is going to welcome back a feature that many have been requesting be resurrected for quite some time.
Touch ID isn’t completely missing from the iPhone lineup right now. You can still buy an iPhone SE with the feature ready to go, for instance. But, out of the five new iPhone models you can buy right now, only one has that particular biometric security measure installed. That may not be the case for much longer, though, as a serial leaker has suggested that Touch ID may make a comeback in the iPhone lineup at some point in the future.
Twitter user “L0vetodream” has posted a straightforward tweet on Twitter this week (via 9to5Mac). As is par for the course with this sort of thing, there aren’t a lot of details to share. The tweet is about as simple as it gets:
MESA uts for iPhone
— 有没有搞措 (@L0vetodream) October 16, 2020
“MESA” is Apple’s internal codename for Touch ID, and “uts” is an abbreviation for “under the screen”. And “iPhone” is . . . well, yeah. So! What does this tell us? This tells us that Apple is apparently planning on bringing an under-display fingerprint reader to a future iPhone. Which future iPhone? Who knows! But “L0vetodream” has a solid enough record to take this one seriously, even if there isn’t a lot to go on.
The rumor mill refuses to give up
Now, it’s worth noting that this is absolutely not the first time something like this has been rumored. In September of last year, for instance, it was reported that Apple was going to launch an iPhone with Touch ID and Face ID this year. And then in December the rumors refused to die, with some even suggesting the 2020 iPhone could boast no notch, too. There was even a patent involved.
But now we know all the details about the iPhone 12 lineup, and Touch ID is not part of the equation for Apple’s newest smartphones. Does that mean we’ll never see Touch ID make a comeback as a major feature in the iPhone lineup? Not at all. And considering the current state of affairs with the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, bringing a fingerprint reader back to the iPhone makes sense, even if it does happen in 2021.
Apple did work things out in an interesting way for the new iPad Air the company introduced earlier this year. That model doesn’t have Face ID, even though it shares the edge-to-edge design of the iPad Pro. Instead, Apple adopted Touch ID into the Power button.
Will we see Apple bring Touch ID back? What do you think?