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Okay. I just measured. Try this.

Set your phone flat on a table so that the Face ID camera is about 18 inches away from your face "horizontally" (on the axis parallel to the ground) and about 18 inches away from your face vertically.

In other words, at a distance and angle where the phone is perfectly usable but the Face ID camera is not pointing at your face.

Let me know if Face ID works instantly and every time for you without you having to pick up the phone and point it at your face. And without you having to lean over such that your face is in front of the phone.
I don’t even know what to say. Face ID means your phone looks at your face, not some weird angle that’s actually looking at the ceiling. Your face is unlocking your phone securely, I don’t want my phone to unlock with something else. Common sense dictates that it is working properly and as designed.
 
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People don’t ever lay their phone on a table a little off to the side while they’re working on their laptop or eating, and want to glance over to check notifications? Even if you don’t, surely you can imagine some people do. Why are some people acting like this is a unicorn situation?
Again it doesn’t mean Face ID sucks, but it is one of its disadvantages.
 
Every time the message “your passcode is required to enable Face ID” comes up when it failed many times despite it having a clear view of my face, I hate it a bit more. This happens multiple times per day

Touch ID is more reliable in the aspect of actually being able to unlock with biometrics.


When I see people denouncing Touch ID in iPhone threads and then see them dismiss the missing Face ID option in Macs, I regard them as bootlickers and have no real opinions.
 
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Every time the message “your passcode is required to enable Face ID” comes up when it failed many times despite it having a clear view of my face, I hate it a bit more. This happens multiple times per day

Touch ID is more reliable in the aspect of actually being able to unlock with biometrics.


When I see people denouncing Touch ID in iPhone threads and then see them dismiss the missing Face ID option in Macs, I regard them as bootlickers and have no real opinions.
I've had maybe a couple of FaceID failures in like the last six months or so. Definitely not a common occurrence for me, even back when using a mask. But I use an 11 Pro Max, so maybe newer models fail more, I don't know.

I do know that when it does fail, 9 times out of 10 it's my fault. Rubbing my nose, looking away, looking too close because I don't have my glasses on, etc.

And as much as I'd like to meet the bootlicker paradyne, well…my 2009 MacPro doesn't have FaceID, my 2011 MBA can only run High Sierra tops and the ONE Mac that MIGHT have FaceID would be the 2023 work issued MBP, which is an M2. Unfortunately, I wouldn't know because I never looked and five minutes after I got that Mac from work it went immediately into clamshell mode attached to two large monitors. And there it stays, just like the 2015 (also work issued) MBP that's still on High Sierra and ALSO in clamshell mode.

So, dang! No modern Macs in this place so I can switch FaceID off on them.
 
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First, you don’t have to hold your phone up to your face. It works at arms length. If it is not working properly I would suggest setting it up again. I never have failures. It works instantly and every time. I hope it works out for you also.
Second, it’s not ****** because it works for most people. It works for me in the dark, while walking, sitting, standing, anywhere.
Third, Face ID rocks! 😉
As if holding it up further away makes it less awkward? It’s not the holding that bothers me, it’s that it has to be at a perfect angle.

And people say ”you always look at your phone if you’re using it anyway”. Well guess what is 100% on the screen when you are using it AND if holding it up for FaceID? Your thumb.

To be perfectly clear, a separate button is completely unnecessary for TouchID. Androids have had under screen ultrasonic fingerprint tech since about 2018. My P30 Pro had, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was much better than FaceID.
 
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As if holding it up further away makes it less awkward? It’s not the holding that bothers me, it’s that it has to be at a perfect angle.

And people say ”you always look at your phone if you’re using it anyway”. Well guess what is 100% on the screen when you are using it AND if holding it up for FaceID? Your thumb.

To be perfectly clear, a separate button is completely unnecessary for TouchID. Androids have had under screen ultrasonic fingerprint tech since about 2018. My P30 Pro had, and while it wasn’t perfect, it was much better than FaceID.
I guess it’s not awkward at all, for me. It’s natural. It’s a phone and I look at it.
Im typing this on my iPad Air which has Touch ID on the upper left corner. It’s in the same position my phone would be, on my lap facing my……face.
To me neither is a big deal. Security is what matters and both accomplish it.
 
And people say ”you always look at your phone if you’re using it anyway”. Well guess what is 100% on the screen when you are using it AND if holding it up for FaceID? Your thumb.
Not exactly sure how you hold your iPhone, but this is how I hold mine. It has Face ID (obviously). I use my left hand to hold and my right hand (I'm right handed) to touch icons and move things on the screen.

2025-04-28 04.51.51.jpg

As you can see, my thumb is not really near the screen and nowhere near where any Touch ID sensor would be. Now, I'm not normal as I do not one-hand my devices. But when I do use my Touch ID phones, I am holding them in the same way and then using my right thumb to unlock.

Everyone is different, so it means nothing to me how you or others handle your phone. But for me, NOT holding my phone to use it doesn't work for me.

PS. My grip is why I HATE round edges on phones.
 
It irritates me that with Face ID I can’t grab and look at incoming message or notification while keeping the phone lock.

Also many times the phone is placed next to me in a distance which is usable but with Face ID I can’t use it without grabbing it.

I don’t even know what to say. Face ID means your phone looks at your face, not some weird angle that’s actually looking at the ceiling. Your face is unlocking your phone securely, I don’t want my phone to unlock with something else. Common sense dictates that it is working properly and as designed.

Last time I checked, no one can open my Touch ID phone with their finger either.
 
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Every time the message “your passcode is required to enable Face ID” comes up when it failed many times despite it having a clear view of my face, I hate it a bit more. This happens multiple times per day

Touch ID is more reliable in the aspect of actually being able to unlock with biometrics.


When I see people denouncing Touch ID in iPhone threads and then see them dismiss the missing Face ID option in Macs, I regard them as bootlickers and have no real opinions.
Face ID is a compromise in order to free up space.
 
I am a 16 Pro user.

Have to agree I prefer Touch ID on the whole but you’d lose apples all screen display with their implementation.

Face ID does have its advantages.

Both have pros and cons depending on the scenario.

Hoping one day Apple goes to under display ultrasonic finger print scanners and maybe retains a smaller cutout Face ID.

This two factor biometric authentication will be the ultimate in phone security, for banking apps, for Apple Pay, HomeKit Keys, Car Keys, Driving Licenses, State ID’s etc.

Would allow doing away with passwords almost entirely and just relying on passkeys authenticated by two factor biometric authentication. And if triple factor required you always have Text, Email, Authenticator apps.
 
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Recently upgraded from an SE to a 16e. All my friends with newer iPhones assured me that I would love Face ID.

Me: What if I want to unlock my phone and my face isn't in front of it?
Friends: When are you trying to use your phone without looking at it? That obviously never happens.

Turns out, it happens several times per day for me.

There are multiple times per day when I have my phone set on my desk, or on a restaurant table, or on my bed, and the phone is pointed up and I'm using it from an angle. So my face isn't directly in front of the phone, but the phone is still perfectly usable.

Touch ID worked fine in those scenarios (obviously) and Face ID doesn't (obviously).

So I have to lean over the phone like an idiot so the camera can see me and the phone unlocks. Alternatively, I could pick up the phone for a second and point it at my face, but now that the sides of the phone are squared off instead of rounded, the phone is fairly difficult to pick up. It's easier to lean over like an idiot.

Remind me, why is this better?
Make sure your eyes are looking at the camera, not the screen.
 
As others have said before, the best solution is to have both Face ID and Touch ID. That will cover the different situations where one is better/worse than the other.

Windows laptops and Android can support both types of biometrics, so there is precedent on devices supporting both types at once.
 
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People don’t ever lay their phone on a table a little off to the side while they’re working on their laptop or eating, and want to glance over to check notifications? Even if you don’t, surely you can imagine some people do. Why are some people acting like this is a unicorn situation?
Again it doesn’t mean Face ID sucks, but it is one of its disadvantages.
Indeed, since I started this thread I have occasionally looked around e.g. restaurants as I'm eating and I usually see several people who have their phones set alongside their food on the table and they're reading an e-book or a web page or whatever.
 
Not exactly sure how you hold your iPhone, but this is how I hold mine. It has Face ID (obviously). I use my left hand to hold and my right hand (I'm right handed) to touch icons and move things on the screen.
...
Maybe it would be inconvenient to use Touch ID with your thumb, specifically, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that you operate your phone without using any fingers at all. And you could use one of those fingers to touch a fingerprint sensor.
 
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I use a 16PM and S25U and rotate weekly. Yes the S25U has the fingerprint reader and face unlock, but if your fingers are dry or different in the slightest way from initial setup, and you happen to be in a darker room, it is a pain and you need to enter in your unlock code. Face unlock won't work.

Face ID isn't the end all be all, but it is pretty excellent and much faster most of the time than fingerprint scanner. For payments, password prompts, and logins it fills automatically right away without needing any input from me. I am able to unlock the phone from an angle, it doesn't always work but then just glancing at the phone takes less than a second.

The only aspect of Face ID I absolutely hate is that you can't go to home screen just by looking at the screen, you need to swipe up. I can't believe Apple doesn't just give the option to go right to home screen like Android does.
 
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Maybe it would be inconvenient to use Touch ID with your thumb, specifically, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that you operate your phone without using any fingers at all. And you could use one of those fingers to touch a fingerprint sensor.
Of course I use fingers. It's just that FaceID works for me, allowing me to…use a finger…to swipe up and unlock. But when I do that, I'm already holding the phone. So, I use my right index finger to swipe up.

With Touch ID, I'm holding the phone, then using my right thumb to unlock. Then my right index finger to swipe screens, tap on stuff, etc. The only thing that has changed for me is that I no longer have to use my thumb to unlock.
 
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Of course I use fingers. It's just that FaceID works for me, allowing me to…use a finger…to swipe up and unlock. But when I do that, I'm already holding the phone. So, I use my right index finger to swipe up.

With Touch ID, I'm holding the phone, then using my right thumb to unlock. Then my right index finger to swipe screens, tap on stuff, etc. The only thing that has changed for me is that I no longer have to use my thumb to unlock.
Uh, what?

You know that you could program Touch ID to unlock via your index finger's fingerprint, right?

There is no rule that you can only use Touch ID with thumbs.

I don't see much difference between swiping up on the home bar on a Face ID phone and pressing the home button with your index finger on a Touch ID phone.
 
Uh, what?

You know that you could program Touch ID to unlock via your index finger's fingerprint, right?

There is no rule that you can only use Touch ID with thumbs.

I don't see much difference between swiping up on the home bar on a Face ID phone and pressing the home button with your index finger on a Touch ID phone.
It is easier for me to use my right thumb with my Touch ID devices than it is to use my right index finger. So, yes, I'm aware. I can even use toes if I want. But my thumb is easier.
 
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It is easier for me to use my right thumb with my Touch ID devices than it is to use my right index finger. So, yes, I'm aware. I can even use toes if I want. But my thumb is easier.
With my Touch ID phone, I programmed it to unlock with my right thumb and my right index finger. If I was pulling my phone out of my pocket, I would usually use my thumb, because it naturally landed on the button and the phone was unlocked by the time I had lifted it up and was looking at it.

When the phone was on a surface like a desk or a table, I would use my index finger, no problem.

It worked pretty great.
 
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With my Touch ID phone, I programmed it to unlock with my right thumb and my right index finger. If I was pulling my phone out of my pocket, I would usually use my thumb, because it naturally landed on the button and the phone was unlocked by the time I had lifted it up and was looking at it.

When the phone was on a surface like a desk or a table, I would use my index finger, no problem.

It worked pretty great.
"Apple can do no wrong" fans can't seem to understand the display's viewing angle is greater than Face ID's detection angle and it's possible to reach something farther with hands.
 
I don’t even know what to say. Face ID means your phone looks at your face, not some weird angle that’s actually looking at the ceiling. Your face is unlocking your phone securely, I don’t want my phone to unlock with something else. Common sense dictates that it is working properly and as designed.
Of course it's working as designed, I don't think I ever said or implied otherwise?

As designed does not suit me very well.
 
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Maybe it would be inconvenient to use Touch ID with your thumb, specifically, but you'll have a hard time convincing me that you operate your phone without using any fingers at all. And you could use one of those fingers to touch a fingerprint sensor.
I get that Face ID isn’t good for the way you use your phone, but for me Touch ID is an extra step, a discrete separate action, while Face ID just unlock my phone every time I pick it up.

I had several fingers registered on my iPhone 8 Plus in order to minimise the inconvenience, but once I got Face ID with my iPhone 14, I could never go back. In fact, one of the very few annoyances I have with my MacBook Pro is that it only has Touch ID, not Face ID. I always have to reach out when I need to use it, it’s always an interruption.
 
I get that Face ID isn’t good for the way you use your phone, but for me Touch ID is an extra step, a discrete separate action, while Face ID just unlock my phone every time I pick it up.

I had several fingers registered on my iPhone 8 Plus in order to minimise the inconvenience, but once I got Face ID with my iPhone 14, I could never go back. In fact, one of the very few annoyances I have with my MacBook Pro is that it only has Touch ID, not Face ID. I always have to reach out when I need to use it, it’s always an interruption.
I may be odd but that’s actually a reason why I prefer Touch ID, because it allows me to be intentional about when and when not to authenticate my phone. Sometimes Face ID is too automatic for me. If I get a message notification on my phone, depending on the message and who is directly around me, I may not necessarily want people to see the notification message preview. With Face ID it unlocks and displays the preview as soon as I look to see that I got a notification. With Touch ID I can see that I have a notification and then decide if I want to unlock it later when I have more privacy.
Also I remember a couple times when I was holding my Face ID iPhone doing something and not intending to unlock it yet, I wouldn’t be paying attention but my face would come into partial view of the sensors so it would repeatedly try to unlock but fail, resulting in me having to enter my passcode.
These kind of situations don’t happen all the time, but as a rule I just like to err on the side of too much granular control rather than too much automation. And I never found that annoying EXCEPT when opening secure apps, because there could never be a situation where I’d tap on an app icon and not want it to open. So my ideal would be Touch ID built into the entire screen so that tapping an app icon would simultaneously authenticate and open it.
 
I may be odd but that’s actually a reason why I prefer Touch ID, because it allows me to be intentional about when and when not to authenticate my phone. Sometimes Face ID is too automatic for me. If I get a message notification on my phone, depending on the message and who is directly around me, I may not necessarily want people to see the notification message preview. With Face ID it unlocks and displays the preview as soon as I look to see that I got a notification. With Touch ID I can see that I have a notification and then decide if I want to unlock it later when I have more privacy.
Also I remember a couple times when I was holding my Face ID iPhone doing something and not intending to unlock it yet, I wouldn’t be paying attention but my face would come into partial view of the sensors so it would repeatedly try to unlock but fail, resulting in me having to enter my passcode.
These kind of situations don’t happen all the time, but as a rule I just like to err on the side of too much granular control rather than too much automation. And I never found that annoying EXCEPT when opening secure apps, because there could never be a situation where I’d tap on an app icon and not want it to open. So my ideal would be Touch ID built into the entire screen so that tapping an app icon would simultaneously authenticate and open it.
I get that. It seems quite reasonable to me. We just have different priorities around unlocking our phones, and fortunately for me, my tastes are close enough to what Apple offers. I’d be disappointed too if Apple started making things that worked in a manner that started to drift away from the way I like things to work.
 
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