If you use an iPhone, you will soon be able to unlock your smartphone with a protective mask using facial recognition. Apple has now made the revised “Face ID” function available for the first time in a beta version of the iOS 15.4 operating system that is accessible to developers.
This is already possible, but only in a roundabout way – because up to now an Apple Watch has also been required if a mouth and nose cover is worn. To this end, “Face ID” will in future focus on “unique features in the area around the eyes” in order to recognize a user, as shown by YouTuber Brandon Butch, among others. According to a report by “Spiegel”, unlocking via face recognition is said to have worked reliably in an initial test with both medical masks and FFP2 masks. According to the IT portal “golem.de”, the whole thing should only work with the iPhone 12 and newer models.
New emoji are coming
Among other things, new emojis should be available for consumers with iOS 15.4, as “Emojipedia” reports. Among other things, there should be a disco ball, a pregnant man, a crutch and a slide.
Apple first introduced Face ID with the iPhone X in 2017. It is not yet known when the finished update to iOS 15.4 will be released.
(wue/spot)