FaceID is pretty inconvenient

[DiveKitty]

For some reason when Touch ID is required to buy something, for instance, I keep accidentally pressing too hard and going home. I guess that’s my own dumb fault but I think Face ID will solve this problem for me.

Apple Pay with Face ID is a breeze. People seem to keep thinking of the Face ID application only for unlocking, but it really streamlines things in other ways as well.
[doublepost=1510169980][/doublepost]

True, but most of the time the phone is in a cradle on my desk or in the car. With touch ID, I don't have to move it from the cradle. With FaceID, I have to pick it up to bring my face in range.

How far across your desk do you keep your phone? My phone is an arm's length away from me(just within reach of a swipe) on my desk and reads my face just fine. If your phone is on the other end of desk, then it is a little absurd to be complaining about inconvenience in first place.
[doublepost=1510170031][/doublepost]

This isn’t the point that most are trying to make. It’s not the fact that swiping up while facing the phone is an issue it is the act of physically lifting the phone.

You don’t need to pick up the phone at all with TouchID.

You don't need to pick it up at all with Face ID either. If it is laying flat on desk, I just need to sort of semi-hover my head over it (at an angle is fine). If it is angled up, I can be an arm's length away...not that I have very long arms I guess.

 

[The Game 161]

Mine works on a desk but i do have to look over it for it to work...might as well just type the pass code in when on a desk. Hardly an issue

 

[LarrySmith]

Was the phone lying flat facing up and you were off to the side? If you did that’s awesome.

I have my phone on my desk to the right of me and about a foot forward of my head.

Off to the side? I wouldn't be able to use it well in that situation anyway so what would be the point of that? It was in front of me.

 

[tonyy]

Mine works on a desk but i do have to look over it for it to work...might as well just type the pass code in when on a desk. Hardly an issue

That’s what I’m currently doing at the moment. Not a huge issue but something to bring up when people are saying FaceID is perfect and superior than TouchID in every way possible.
[doublepost=1510171078][/doublepost]

Off to the side? I wouldn't be able to use it well in that situation anyway so what would be the point of that? It was in front of me.

Took this pic off the web but my setup is similar and my phone would be where that book is. You can still use the phone off to the side like that. I’ll probably end up getting a stand for my phone.

 

[dk001]

This is what I'm facing currently with my X. My phone is oriented exactly the way you describe at my desk. I can use my phone and do whatever i need to do all while its laying flat. I can't do that anymore if I want to use FaceID to unlock my phone. I physically have to pick it up and face it in the general direction of my face to unlock. The only way I thought of so far is swipe up and input my numerical code which is a huge step backwards and defeats the purpose.

I added a pic to my original post.

 

[ManuCH]

Sorry to crash your thread, but I'm probably one of those rare snowflakes who actually likes FaceID better. I have found it to be completely seamless for my typical use case: take phone out of my pocket - swipe - done. I don't wait or anything, it just unlocks.

Also, authenticating apps is much more convenient than with TouchID, especially considering that I use 1Password a lot. I just wait a second - done.

No problem with sunglasses and/or a scarf either.

The only minor inconvenience is unlocking the iPhone X while it's laying on my desk, as others mentioned. But at the end, I noticed that I actually never *used* the phone while in that position (that would be an awkward position to use a phone). It was just a habit of unlocking it before picking it up to use it. I have now changed my "flow" and pick it up first - of course it works.

I know, YMMV. But for me it's actually better.

My other minor gripe is the narrower screen, coming from an iPhone 8 Plus. But the iPhone X is so much lighter and feels so much better in my pocket that I'm willing to take the trade-off.

 

[technoholic]

Please don't tell me that having to put your phone on something to angle it towards you on a desk is not a compromise. Sure, you might have been going to buy a wireless charger that holds it up anyway, but to have to put something under it to get it to work in a use case that it worked in before, is by definition, a step backwards in that use case. Now I'm not bashing Face ID in general, it's great tech and in app authentication is fantastic, at least as good as Touch ID, if not slightly better, but for that use case, it's downright inconvenient. And just because YOU might not use your phone flat on a desk regularly, doesn't mean others don't.
Personally, I'd say at least 30% of my use is tapping the phone to log in, check red bubbles, etc etc, all while it's down flat. Either on my desk or on a table in a boardroom in a meeting when im expecting an important message from the wife and don't want to blatantly pick the phone up or carry around a little phone rest to raise it to the desired angle.

As I said, Face ID is great and for all those who say it works for them in every case, that's great, for me, it's enough to be the line between a flawless phone and one that I can't live with in its current state. Personally, I don't feel I should have to bend to new technology, I feel like it should improve on what was there, but in this case specifically, it doesn't, FOR ME, and no one can tell me I'm wrong because you're not me, in the same way I can't tell anyone else they are wrong for loving it or hating it or whatever. Surely we can all agree on that?

 

[eelpout]

True, but most of the time the phone is in a cradle on my desk or in the car. With touch ID, I don't have to move it from the cradle. With FaceID, I have to pick it up to bring my face in range.

yeah, I think the in car usage, with the lack of going simply by touch, is going to irk some people. I had to get comfortable with iris-only scanning (no fingerprint sensor) on my Lumia 950 XL a couple years ago. so car interaction with the phone was curtailed (a good thing ).

 

[ManuCH]

Please don't tell me that having to put your phone on something to angle it towards you on a desk is not a compromise. Sure, you might have been going to buy a wireless charger that holds it up anyway, but to have to put something under it to get it to work in a use case that it worked in before, is by definition, a step backwards in that use case. Now I'm not bashing Face ID in general, it's great tech and in app authentication is fantastic, at least as good as Touch ID, if not slightly better, but for that use case, it's downright inconvenient. And just because YOU might not use your phone flat on a desk regularly, doesn't mean others don't.
Personally, I'd say at least 30% of my use is tapping the phone to log in, check red bubbles, etc etc, all while it's down flat. Either on my desk or on a table in a boardroom in a meeting when im expecting an important message from the wife and don't want to blatantly pick the phone up or carry around a little phone rest to raise it to the desired angle.

As I said, Face ID is great and for all those who say it works for them in every case, that's great, for me, it's enough to be the line between a flawless phone and one that I can't live with in its current state. Personally, I don't feel I should have to bend to new technology, I feel like it should improve on what was there, but in this case specifically, it doesn't, FOR ME, and no one can tell me I'm wrong because you're not me, in the same way I can't tell anyone else they are wrong for loving it or hating it or whatever. Surely we can all agree on that?

Yes, if 30% of your use cases consist on interacting with your phone while it's flat on the table, then I'd recommend sticking with an iPhone 8 or 8 Plus. We share the same opinion: people shouldn't have to bend to technology.

 

[MH01]

but question is why would you not pick up your phone if you are using it on the desk?

Sometimes you just want to quickly check a message or more details of a notification , I quite often do this without picking up my phone .
[doublepost=1510207737][/doublepost]

Please don't tell me that having to put your phone on something to angle it towards you on a desk is not a compromise. Sure, you might have been going to buy a wireless charger that holds it up anyway, but to have to put something under it to get it to work in a use case that it worked in before, is by definition, a step backwards in that use case. Now I'm not bashing Face ID in general, it's great tech and in app authentication is fantastic, at least as good as Touch ID, if not slightly better, but for that use case, it's downright inconvenient. And just because YOU might not use your phone flat on a desk regularly, doesn't mean others don't.
Personally, I'd say at least 30% of my use is tapping the phone to log in, check red bubbles, etc etc, all while it's down flat. Either on my desk or on a table in a boardroom in a meeting when im expecting an important message from the wife and don't want to blatantly pick the phone up or carry around a little phone rest to raise it to the desired angle.

As I said, Face ID is great and for all those who say it works for them in every case, that's great, for me, it's enough to be the line between a flawless phone and one that I can't live with in its current state. Personally, I don't feel I should have to bend to new technology, I feel like it should improve on what was there, but in this case specifically, it doesn't, FOR ME, and no one can tell me I'm wrong because you're not me, in the same way I can't tell anyone else they are wrong for loving it or hating it or whatever. Surely we can all agree on that?

For me each interation of the iPhone has been a natural instinctive progression , with the X it's not, you have to bend to its way.... very ackward for any apple device. In a weird way it feels like a apple/android implementation - cause I scratch my head at certain things like he way you close apps or remove apps....

 

[lordhamster]

Sometimes you just want to quickly check a message or more details of a notification , I quite often do this without picking up my phone .
[doublepost=1510207737][/doublepost]

For me each interation of the iPhone has been a natural instinctive progression , with the X it's not, you have to bend to its way.... very ackward for any apple device. In a weird way it feels like a apple/android implementation - cause I scratch my head at certain things like he way you close apps or remove apps....

I switch back and forth between android and IOS often, but I have to agree the force close apps has me scratching my head... why is it not a swipe up from the multi-talking to kill an APP? This is how it works on the my iPad pro. At the moment, my biggest frustration is that there are essentially two UIs for the same OS version. the iPhone X works significantly different than the my iPad Pro... even they really COULD work exactly the same (by making the physical home button optional and implementing gestures on the iPad).

That said, I would not give up my X at this point. I've come from a Pixel XL after being away from iOS for a year and am just loving the tight integration with my Macbook Pro, iPad Pro, iPhone x and Airpods.

 

[terandle]

I’m just sitting on the couch and reset up FaceID and am opening it up over and over again testing it out. The failure rate is incredibly high, small variations in the phones angle in my hand causes it to not work. Even holding it straight dead on looking at me and it will fail sometimes for no reason that I can tell.

It should be failing 1 in 100 but it seems more like 1 in 10 right now.

 

[Rogifan]

So what do people who have Android phones with the fingerprint sensors on the back do? How do they unlock their phones when lying flat on a table?

I turned off require attention which helps a lot to unlock at weird angles. When I’m at work I tap the screen to see if I have anything that needs my attention and if I do I pick up the phone. I don’t see how this is an issue.

 

[44267547]

So what do people who have Android phones with the fingerprint sensors on the back do? How do they unlock their phones when lying flat on a table?.

They can either resort to a passcode. Or, they have the option of using Facial recognition or Iris scanning.

 

[technoholic]

So what do people who have Android phones with the fingerprint sensors on the back do? How do they unlock their phones when lying flat on a table?

I turned off require attention which helps a lot to unlock at weird angles. When I’m at work I tap the screen to see if I have anything that needs my attention and if I do I pick up the phone. I don’t see how this is an issue.

why do people keep thinking that their experience should be the same as everyone else? So what if you don't see it as an issue, it is for other people

 

[macher]

Mine works on a desk but i do have to look over it for it to work...might as well just type the pass code in when on a desk. Hardly an issue

Yea had to do that with Touch ID. Face ID has been working better than Touch ID. I was very skeptical at first but now I’m sold on Face ID. Touch ID failed a lot more than Face ID. I have to say it took a lot of ball for Apple to completely replace Touch ID with Face.

 

[stevemiller]

Apple Pay with Face ID is a breeze. People seem to keep thinking of the Face ID application only for unlocking, but it really streamlines things in other ways as well.

In fairness, is there anything unstreamlined about Touch ID for payment?

(note: for me the most cumbersome step - which exists in both face ID and Touch ID implementations - is triggering the payment screen, because you either have to go to the wallet app or sleep your phone and double tap the home button / side button on the X; but I understand the reasoning that you have to show some form of intent first to prevent accidental authentications.)

It feels like the arguments here boil down to people debating whether having your face briefly in view of the front camera or having a finger briefly rest on the home button are substantial enough inconveniences that one becomes transformatively better than the other. I'm sure for specific people's situations either *could* be true, but I just don't think it can be painted in global absolutes.

 

[Applejuiced]

In fairness, is there anything unstreamlined about Touch ID for payment?

(note: for me the most cumbersome step - which exists in both face ID and Touch ID implementations - is triggering the payment screen, because you either have to go to the wallet app or sleep your phone and double tap the home button / side button on the X; but I understand the reasoning that you have to show some form of intent first to prevent accidental authentications.)

It feels like the arguments here boil down to people debating whether having your face briefly in view of the front camera or having a finger briefly rest on the home button are substantial enough inconveniences that one becomes transformatively better than the other. I'm sure for specific people's situations either *could* be true, but I just don't think it can be painted in global absolutes.

What I usually do is just bring the phone near the NFC applepay terminal and then it bring up the Appleplay with my default credit card up.
Yours doesnt do that?
I dont remember ever having to manually bring up Wallet up to use it.

 

[QCassidy352]

Maybe you expect it to be unequivocally better than TouchID on the 6S, but I don't. Touch ID on the 6s was at least v2 of that platform. This is a Gen1 feature, don't forget that... Comparing FaceID now to TouchID on the 6s isn't a fair comparison.

This argument puzzles me. Unless Apple offering some discount for Face ID being a first gen technology, its function should reflect its price and marketing as a flagship feature on the most expensive smartphone ever. If it gets better in gen 2 in 2018, I don’t see how that’s relevant to people who just paid $1000 for a phone in 2017.

 

[stevemiller]

What I usually do is just bring the phone near the NFC applepay terminal and then it bring up the Appleplay with my default credit card up.
Yours doesnt do that?
I dont remember ever having to manually bring up Wallet up to use it.

it will do this, however, I've never seen that listed as an official method, and when I try to authenticate, it usually has to fail once before working the second time. if you know a trick to get it to authenticate reliably on the first try, you'll be my hero!

 

[Mxbzz]

So what do people who have Android phones with the fingerprint sensors on the back do? How do they unlock their phones when lying flat on a table?

I turned off require attention which helps a lot to unlock at weird angles. When I’m at work I tap the screen to see if I have anything that needs my attention and if I do I pick up the phone. I don’t see how this is an issue.

On top of the other responses, they also have the option to use Smart Lock, which can use a trusted Bluetooth or WiFi connection to bypass the screen lock. I personally don’t use it on my S8, but it’s nice having that option.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

I have no issues. infact, what I have noticed is that FACE ID is much more convenient at times especially when reaching financial apps, it immediately checks my face instead of asking for my fingerprint. feels futuristic. and it passed the dirty fingers buffalo wings test.

 

[bruinsrme]

This! Touch ID, especially v2, is one of the BEST things about pre-X iPhones. So Face ID has always seemed to me to be a solution in search of a problem.

Now, if they’d included both, that would’ve been cool because each could have complimented the other in those cases where one or the other is weak. But as a straight replacement... it’s hard to get excited about. it’s quite good... just like its predecessor.

You don't sound like a Pats fan, more like a Jets or Sabres fan. LOL
I was a skeptic and refused to consider the X.
It was available for pick up so I bought it.
I was going to try it for the 14 days and give it back to apple. (not even a consideration now)
love the facial recognition vs the button.
going to my ipad I find the button inconvenient especially if it's not in the best orientation for my fingers.

It's only going to get better.

 

[caesarp]

Please don't tell me that having to put your phone on something to angle it towards you on a desk is not a compromise. Sure, you might have been going to buy a wireless charger that holds it up anyway, but to have to put something under it to get it to work in a use case that it worked in before, is by definition, a step backwards in that use case. Now I'm not bashing Face ID in general, it's great tech and in app authentication is fantastic, at least as good as Touch ID, if not slightly better, but for that use case, it's downright inconvenient. And just because YOU might not use your phone flat on a desk regularly, doesn't mean others don't.
Personally, I'd say at least 30% of my use is tapping the phone to log in, check red bubbles, etc etc, all while it's down flat. Either on my desk or on a table in a boardroom in a meeting when im expecting an important message from the wife and don't want to blatantly pick the phone up or carry around a little phone rest to raise it to the desired angle.

As I said, Face ID is great and for all those who say it works for them in every case, that's great, for me, it's enough to be the line between a flawless phone and one that I can't live with in its current state. Personally, I don't feel I should have to bend to new technology, I feel like it should improve on what was there, but in this case specifically, it doesn't, FOR ME, and no one can tell me I'm wrong because you're not me, in the same way I can't tell anyone else they are wrong for loving it or hating it or whatever. Surely we can all agree on that?

Ehh, you're wrong. Face ID is objectively superior to Touch ID. The fact that you have a particular situation where you don't want to move your head to line up a little with your phone doesn't change that. And you can use face ID while the phone is flat (even with your head slightly to the side). You DON"T NEED TO PICK UP THE PHONE to read messages from your wife or anyone else when at a meeting and the phone is flat. It's actually more discreet than Touch ID, since you don't have to hold your finger on a little circle. You just tap to wake and hover your head nearby (and if your in a meeting its already nearby). Set preview to show always and you don't have to unlock to read a short message anyway. I think you think you need to always raise the phone to start the face id process. That is incorrect. You do need to wake it - and there are 3 ways. Tap, raise or press side button. Also, if a message comes in you can read it without waking, by glancing (if you set to show preview always - unless its a long message).

 

[ReallyBigFeet]

Now i'm sure it's much more secure then touch id but for me, I see it as pretty inconvenient. How is angling your phone towards your face to unlock your phone easier to use?
I always have my phone laying on my desk next to my laptop when working. And without moving and without moving the phone i'd just reach and unlock with my finger and can check something. Now I have to lift it towards my face and swipe up or tap it to wake, swipe up, wait till "Face ID" disappears then enter my passcode.
Or like last night I was just hanging out, happen to be leaning my head on my hand(in front of my face) guess what! Have to adjust my position to unlock my phone.
I just don't see how they could keep this and not somehow add back touch ID later down the road. Not every situation we have with our phone is directly in front of our faces.

I love the phone overall but little inconveniences like these just make me really miss touch ID. Also is there any way to make entering your passcode quicker, i don't know why they need to show me "face id" first then let me enter it.

See, for me, having to stop typing on my laptop and reach over and unlock the phone using Touch ID was inconvenient. It's much easier to unlock with Face ID. I don't have to remove gloves when working outside, I don't have to make sure my fingers are clean (I work on construction sites, and this often blocked Touch ID from working), etc.

What's inconvenient for me is NOT Face ID...but the insistence on Apple's part that even after unlocking with Face ID I still HAVE TO SWIPE UP TO START USING THE PHONE!!! I find that stupid, I get why they did it, but I think that should be a totally optional thing that's selectable in settings. It annoys the crap out of me and I blame it mostly on the Touch ID system. Apple things we want to fondle our phones. I personally do not.