The second generation iPhone SE has been the last to incorporate Touch ID as a security system in an Apple smartphone, something that already seemed abandoned since the iPhone 8. However, the rumors that it will return with the iPhone 13 this year is every louder time. Here we tell you the last hour of this return, which looks like one of the great novelties of this year as well as one of the most anticipated by users of the Californian brand.
Low screen and without saying goodbye to Face ID
There have been several analysts who have predicted that the next generation of Apple will have Touch ID again, although without giving up the already established Face ID that the company continues to have as the best in the market, both in terms of efficiency and security. Mark Gurman, Ming-Chi Kuo or Jon Prosser are three of the main gurus who have provided this information, to which Joanna Stern, an analyst at The Wall Street Journal, also spoke about this information in a recent article .
The journalist claims to have heard a former company employee confirm that Apple is working on a curious variant of the under-screen fingerprint sensor. The vast majority of Android devices such as the latest Samsung Galaxy S21 incorporate ultrasonic sensors, but it seems that Apple would bet on a hybrid between optical and capacitive sensors that, according to what they say, would be safer than the rest of the sensors on the market.
Experts in the field assure that, at least to this day, ultrasonic solutions are still the safest for unlocking by fingerprint. However, it is difficult to imagine Apple presenting a device whose security methods are inferior to those of the competition and more so when it is going to be the last major company to incorporate it. That would not only break with the fact that Apple, even if it is late, always does better, but it would also break with one of the company’s main assets in the field of security and privacy. Therefore, we will have to keep waiting to find out how the company ensures that its sensor is one of the safest.
Why is Touch ID now returning to the iPhone?
It was in 2017 when the rise of Apple’s patents began to obtain an on-screen fingerprint sensor, a technology that at that time had not been explored by renowned brands. However, the company seemed to give up on this system and bet everything on Face ID. Four years later and with a market in which under-screen sensors are a clear trend, Apple has not yet opted for it in any of its iPhone. Why has the company taken so long to want to incorporate these sensors?
As far as is known, in Cupertino they no longer had the return of Touch ID in their plans. They were one of the main drivers of this technology when the iPhone 5s incorporated it for the first time, but with the arrival of Face ID they believed another biometric system was unnecessary. However, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that would have made them change their minds, since everyone knows the many problems that unlocking an iPhone with Face ID brings if you wear a mask. In fact, the iPhone 12 could have already incorporated something similar, but the fact that the pandemic arose with the development already completed made it impossible to add it, since in the end that would have made the phones lag even more than they did. .
What remains to be seen is the way in which Apple implements its two security systems, if they can be configured to use either of them or if it is even possible to have an option that only unlocks the device if both fingerprint and face are detected. In any case, we will have to wait a few more months to continue learning information about it, since it is expected that the new phones of the apple brand will be presented in September.