iOS 15.4: Face ID can authenticate the user wearing a mask – iGeneration

We were expecting new things in iOS 15.4, here’s one that should relieve many iPhone users. Face ID can now recognize faces wearing a mask, which happens very frequently while the pandemic has not had its last word. Since a yearApple offers a compromise: no need to remove your mask when identifying with Face ID, but it is necessary to have an Apple Watch on your wrist, the watch serving as a relay for the authentication process on the iPhone.

iOS 15.4 removes the need to wear a watch: Face ID will be able to recognize ” the unique features around your eyes to authenticate the user. It is not necessary to wear a mask during the configuration of the function. Apple nevertheless specifies that Face ID is more precise when the setting is configured on full face recognition.

After installing the 15.4 update, the Face ID configuration immediately launches, offering to use the function with a mask. If you start the procedure, no need to wear a mask: the process will simply ask you to turn your head twice in the registration screen, as for a classic Face ID configuration.

The settings Face ID and passcode enable or disable Face ID with a mask. If recognition with a mask is activated, the settings propose to add glasses during the configuration of the function (sunglasses are not compatible). Apple says Face ID works best when configured to recognize each pair of glasses you wear regularly. And for good reason, when you wear a mask, it is the contours of the eyes that are analyzed.

We tested this novelty with a fabric mask and an N95 mask, with and without glasses: it works fine. And the same for the Apple Pay identification, no need to enter your code! On the other hand, the option was not presented to us on an iPhone XS Max, nor on an iPhone 11 according to a reader. It is likely that the Face ID with a mask function will be reserved for the most recent models, namely the iPhone 12 and 13.

Until now, Apple had always justified the incompatibility of Face ID with masks by a security reason. “It’s hard to see something you can’t see”, declared in 2020 Tim Millet, Apple’s vice president in charge of platform architecture, talking about the part of the face covered. Possibilities were possible such as the recognition of the top of the face, but “you will lose some of the specificities that make your face unique”, he explained then. And to agree that the problem was “delicate”.

If Apple officially refused to adapt Face ID to masked faces until today, quite a few testimonials of unlocking with a mask have punctuated the pandemic, without ever finding a clear explanation on the why and how. iOS 15.4 finally brings a real solution.