Face ID and sunglasses

Posted 21st May 2019 in Apple and Design

Lately, the sun has started coming out a bit more here in the UK. And with the sun comes the need to dig my sunglasses out.

For the first time since October last year when I bought my first Face ID enabled phone, I’ve had to use my passcode to unlock my phone! But you know what? I don’t mind one bit!

Gloves, wet hands, rough skin after hand-sanding a bannister, cuts and scrapes. With all of these, Touch ID would have stopped me in my tracks, but Face ID hasn’t failed once.

Face ID recognises me with or without my glasses on, with a longer or shorter beard, lying on my side in bed with a puffy face first thing in the morning; it even knows who I am when I’ve got a toothbrush in my mouth!

In theory Face ID can recognise you with sunglasses on as it looks through the glass, but some types of glass filter out the infrared it uses, so it can’t see your eyes.

I’ve tried turning the ‘Require attention for Face ID’ setting off; I’ve tried adding a second Face ID profile with my glasses on; neither of this things has worked.

So there’s always a downside to any design, and I’m happy to be able to unlock my phone immediately after doing the washing up if it means having to lift my sunglasses up every now and then during the summer months.

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