As COVID-19 remains in the pandemic stage, there continue to be a lot of cases where covering one’s face is needed. Apple was supposed to make phone unlocking easier by adding in-screen Touch ID to iPhone 13, but now a new report has shot down that possibility.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS:
- Mark Gurman says iPhone 13 won’t have in-screen Touch ID
- Apple is more focused on putting Face ID under the display
- As a result, the iPhone 13 lineup should have regular Face ID
No Touch ID iPhone 13 after all?
While Apple did test an under-display Touch ID sensor, the next iPhone won’t have it.
Reporter Mark Gurman writes in his latest Power On newsletter on Bloomberg that in-screen Touch ID “won’t make the cut” because Apple’s energies are focused on in-screen Face ID.
He doesn’t mention whether the next iPhone might embed a fingerprint reader directly into a power button, though, similar to the fourth-generation iPad Air. Now, prior rumors have called for other iPhone 13 features, like larger batteries, faster performance with Apple’s A15 chip, support for ProRes video recording and so forth.
Those and other improvements should be enough to make you want to upgrade from your old iPhone to an iPhone 13. But if an in-screen Touch ID matters more to you than anything else, you may be in for a dissapointment.
Apple fans have eagerly been expecting this year’s tentatively named “iPhone 13”.
Face ID, Touch ID or both?
While owners of Face ID iPhones can now unlock their phone while wearing a mask, as long as they’re wearing their Apple Watch, many people would prefer Touch ID as a secondary biometric—especially with COVID-19 and the current health pandemic making facial unlocking in public more challenging than it needs to be.
→ How to unlock iPhone with Apple Watch
The fact that there won’t be an iPhone with an in-screen Touch ID sensor this year will surely disappoint Touch ID fans who have been keeping their fingers crossed for a revival of the technology on future iPhones. Apple is hoping to put both Touch ID and Face ID underneath the display, a move that would permit engineers to get rid of the notch completely.
Apple was awarded a patent for in-screen Touch ID and Face ID earlier in 2021, titled “Electronic device display for through-display imaging.” Found on the USPTO website, the invention outlines using a fairly large optical imaging sensor positioned underneath the display.