Face ID, the facial recognition technology of Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC),, faces its biggest challenge in a pandemic time. With the mandatory use of masks outside the home, user recognition proved to be an arduous task.
With the arrival of the new version of the operating system iOS 14.5 still in beta, it is now known that it will be possible to unlock any iPhone with this technology even with a mask. However, it is important to emphasize that there is a dependency.
The new “Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch” feature works when Face ID detects that you are using a face mask. If you have an unlocked Apple Watch on your wrist, your iPhone will unlock at this point, without having to enter the password.
“The iPhone can use your Apple Watch to unlock when Face ID detects a masked face. Your Apple Watch should be nearby, on your wrist, unlocked and protected by a password ”.
If the Face ID detects that the user is wearing a mask, the user will use the Apple Watch to authenticate it. If so, your smart watch will vibrate as a sign of success when unlocking your iPhone.
It is important to clarify, however, that the remaining operations that use Face ID for authentication will not benefit from this novelty. This includes methods for authenticating payments that will continue to require full face authentication before granting proper authorization.
Last year Apple made it easy to ignore the request for facial identification while wearing a mask, automatically presenting the password screen. This happened on iOS 13.5, when the pandemic was still in its infancy.
