iPhone 12 I don't want to go back to fingerprint scanners again...

[Apple_Robert]

Stick with the mini as long as you can and you won't have to worry for 5+ years.

 

[11235813]

According to latest rumors, not only is FaceID not going away, TouchID isn't coming back at all.

 

[Tagbert]

Face ID on iPhone is fine, while on iPad is a nightmare

FaceID on the iPad Pro is so easy that you never notice it happening. you just go to your iPad and it is unlocked. It even allows unlock from different angles that the phone can't handle. I would hate to have to always reach out and swipe my finger on the power button. With the iPad Prod, the iPad just seems to always be unlocked when I want it with no action required.

 

[antiprotest]

Touch ID has never worked for me, on the iPhone or my M1 Mac. It would register my prints and then forget them after about 2 days or so. Face ID has been 100% for me since the iPhone X.

That said, I know people that have the opposite experience, so that Touch ID is more reliable for them.

Having both would be best for everybody.

 

[ian87w]

Imagine not having a home button and never having to press down on the screen again. It's actually kinda awesome to do everything with light taps and swipes instead of hard presses. It's not like it's a pain to click a button, but you probably end up clicking that one button hundreds of times per day and it's just nice to not have to.

That’s already doable. On my 7+, with raise to wake, I just raise the phone and it will turn on the screen to show notifications. And since I enabled Rest finger to open in accessibility, I just need to place my finger on the TouchID without needing to press it. Just a tap, my phone unlocks and I’m in the Home Screen.

 

[turbineseaplane]

I love the comments of "I could NEVER go back to TouchID"

Umm... you would if you had no choice (i.e. if Apple moved away from FaceID some day)

And you'd be just fine..

smh at the "drama" of unbelievably first world kvetching here sometimes

 

[lagflag]

What I hate about faceID is the inability to use my peripheral vision to check notifications. TouchID is nice when you want to pick up your phone and read a text without taking your focus away from a conversation etc.

Unless the touch id censor is on the back (Pixel 2 user here- but will go iPhone soon)

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Go back? I never left, and I'm not planning on leaving any time soon. Face ID isn't the problem, the lack of a home button is. The UI is just so much smoother with that button than with the stupid slide up silliness.

I'd have hated Face ID a lot more if I'd been forced to deal with it with a mask on. Touch ID even works through neoprene gloves. What a disaster.

 

[Jayson A]

Go back? I never left, and I'm not planning on leaving any time soon. Face ID isn't the problem, the lack of a home button is. The UI is just so much smoother with that button than with the stupid slide up silliness.

I'd have hated Face ID a lot more if I'd been forced to deal with it with a mask on. Touch ID even works through neoprene gloves. What a disaster.

Apple is moving toward buttonless and portless designs. You'll have to get used to it at some point. FaceID is amazingly fast and accurate and I haven't really had any issues with it.

 

[Momof2.1107]

I love the comments of "I could NEVER go back to TouchID"

Umm... you would if you had no choice (i.e. if Apple moved away from FaceID some day)

And you'd be just fine..

smh at the "drama" of unbelievably first world kvetching here sometimes

The only thing that will make me go back to TouchID, if like you said Apple moved away from FaceID. I seriously hope we never get to that point.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

FaceID is also more secure. This claim was made by Apple and then verified by security researchers. Just takes a lot more effort to forge a face than a fingerprint. If they add under the screen TouchID, I will be disabling it and only using FaceID.

Random advice for anyone with an unusually high threat model — use a strong passphrase for your iPhone and shut it down the second you’re in danger. Obviously don’t enable any sort of iCloud recovery method.

You know what would be even more secure? Two factor authentication, using Touch ID AND a PIN. I've always wished Apple would enable that mode.

I'd also like to see a "burn" code - an alternate PIN that when used would immediately erase the phone. No, most people would never need it, but if you're in a situation where someone is threatening you if you don't unlock the phone, all you'd have to do is put in the code and poof.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Apple is moving toward buttonless and portless designs. You'll have to get used to it at some point. FaceID is amazingly fast and accurate and I haven't really had any issues with it.

There aren't many things that would make me jump platforms, but portless would probably be the breaking point for me.

 

[Jayson A]

You know what would be even more secure? Two factor authentication, using Touch ID AND a PIN. I've always wished Apple would enable that mode.

I'd also like to see a "burn" code - an alternate PIN that when used would immediately erase the phone. No, most people would never need it, but if you're in a situation where someone is threatening you if you don't unlock the phone, all you'd have to do is put in the code and poof.

Then poof, you're dead!

 

[DeepIn2U]

To our op, Jason A, welcome to the 12 mini team. Glad to see you’re enjoying your iPhone.

I'd imagine if TouchID does make a return to future iPhones it will be in addition to FaceID

I’m thinking the same thing in 2 generations after iPhone 13, yet I’m worried Apple will just abandon TouchID after that since it may make the screen thickness as a complete unit thicker. Recall the reason they abandond ForceTouch?

What I hate about faceID is the inability to use my peripheral vision to check notifications. TouchID is nice when you want to pick up your phone and read a text without taking your focus away from a conversation etc.

I can use my peripheral vision to check notifications on my iPhone 12 mini, and pretty much all iPhones using Face ID. The limitation maybe just you. I personally set mine just to notify not display personal content when locked, others may choose to show full notifications and their details on the Lock Screen, some want just the notification header but that’s it.

What would be great is for iOS to allow full screen rotation, even when locked to display a wider notification alert. Maybe we’ll see that before too long.

 

[BigBlur]

I agree with the OP 100%. I'd never go back to Touch ID. I needed a new iPad and got the new iPad Pro 11" for the Face ID. I would have gotten the Air 4 if it had it. For all the sites I sign into, I couldn't imagine having to tap my account and then have to reach over to put my finger on the button to authenticate me every time. With Face ID, I just tap my account, and boom, I'm in because I'm already looking at the screen.

I'm genuinely curious why some people hate/dislike Face ID though. I get it's problematic when wearing a mask; but other than that, why isn't it working for them? I've never had a problem whether I'm wearing contacts, glasses, sunglasses, a hat, or if my face is smooshed halfway into my pillow in the dark.

 

[DeepIn2U]

What I hate about faceID is the inability to use my peripheral vision to check notifications. TouchID is nice when you want to pick up your phone and read a text without taking your focus away from a conversation etc.

Not sure what you mean here but hey anybody wit’s an iPhone can read text without taking for focus away from a conversation.

Like what conversation are you talking about - you’re reading a text most likely (unless the 1st message) is a conversation. Do you mean a in-person conversation, or a conversation in another app, or ??

I like Touch ID. I can turn on my phone without looking at it.

Just about all phones built, after minimal familiarity, allows for anyone to ‘turn on their phone without looking at it‘ lol. Honestly I think you really meant unlock your phone without looking at it. FaceID allows you, in Settings, to Disable awareness (meaning to have your eyes look at the phone).

most likely when someone wants to unlock their phone - it‘s 90% (at least, personal estimate here) that someone is going to USE the phone, or hand it to someone that will use it, else what’s the point of unlocking it?

 

[LooseyGoosey]

Truth is, you can unlock your Face-ID enabled phone without looking at it or without even picking it up:

• Leave the phone on a horizontal surface, eg. desk, countertop, etc.
• tap the screen
• swipe up from the bottom of the screen
• tap on 'Face ID' OR wait 3 whole seconds
• Enter passcode
• Viola -- phone is unlocked

I was hesitant to move to Face ID, but once I got the 12 Mini and the iPad Pro 11, I'm a new believer! Quick, painless, secure and makes logging into sites and apps a breeze.

 

[MisterSavage]

The only problem I see with FaceID is that it only works with the phone oriented in portrait mode. Apart from that it works perfectly for me with only a handful of missed attempts. TouchID in my experience objected as soon as I tried to use it after having worked with my hands. Gardening, building something, wet hands etc.

Yes, so true. I especially had trouble with Touch ID in the winter when my hands get really dry.

FaceID on the iPad Pro is so easy that you never notice it happening. you just go to your iPad and it is unlocked. It even allows unlock from different angles that the phone can't handle. I would hate to have to always reach out and swipe my finger on the power button. With the iPad Prod, the iPad just seems to always be unlocked when I want it with no action required.

Exactly. With my iPad in landscape or portrait, on my lap or on a stand, it just unlocks. Very rare for me to have to retry an auth attempt with Face ID.

I agree with the OP 100%. I'd never go back to Touch ID.

Sign me up for the drama-filled "never going back crew" also!

 

[CTHarrryH]

If you live up north - then during winter you have to remove gloves to do Touch-ID when you are using outdoors. When used phone with Touch I used to have to reset it occasionally or seasonally. I never have an issue with Face-ID but when I use Touch-ID (on my new iPod Air) usually takes a couple of tries to get it to unlock.

 

[Surfman]

Wish my new iMac had FID

 

[Momof2.1107]

I agree with the OP 100%. I'd never go back to Touch ID. I needed a new iPad and got the new iPad Pro 11" for the Face ID. I would have gotten the Air 4 if it had it. For all the sites I sign into, I couldn't imagine having to tap my account and then have to reach over to put my finger on the button to authenticate me every time. With Face ID, I just tap my account, and boom, I'm in because I'm already looking at the screen.

I'm genuinely curious why some people hate/dislike Face ID though. I get it's problematic when wearing a mask; but other than that, why isn't it working for them? I've never had a problem whether I'm wearing contacts, glasses, sunglasses, a hat, or if my face is smooshed halfway into my pillow in the dark.

I have no issues with using FaceID at night neither or in general at all.

 

[MikeAK]

I haven't had my phone locked in 4 years so I couldn't care less what Apple does. I carry a thin fit card wallet for my money needs and my phone is never out of my hand or pocket.

 

[collin_]

You know what would be even more secure? Two factor authentication, using Touch ID AND a PIN. I've always wished Apple would enable that mode.

I'd also like to see a "burn" code - an alternate PIN that when used would immediately erase the phone. No, most people would never need it, but if you're in a situation where someone is threatening you if you don't unlock the phone, all you'd have to do is put in the code and poof.

I find it particularly frustrating that Apple doesn’t let us use hardware security keys as a 2FA method for iCloud accounts. They should give advanced users an option to use zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption for all data, hardware security keys, and an optional recovery code. I always prefer when companies literally can’t access my data, and I 100% accept that that makes me wholly responsible for not getting locked out.

 

[jagolden]

The only problem I see with FaceID is that it only works with the phone oriented in portrait mode. Apart from that it works perfectly for me with only a handful of missed attempts. TouchID in my experience objected as soon as I tried to use it after having worked with my hands. Gardening, building something, wet hands etc.

If they bring it back, I hope it doesn't take up any internal space.

‘This must be specific to the phone as Face ID works perfectly in landscape mode on the iPads.

As to the OP’s comments, I highly disagree. Yea, when useable, FaceID is great, but is way less than perfect. There are so many times TouchID are better.
My pet peeves about FaceID-Apples gives this rosey idea that over time it adjust and accepts different looks it sees on you. BS.
After two years it still does not recognize my wearing a CPAP mask at nigh, and after 18 months is STILL doesn’t recognize the wearing of a face mask for covid. The half-assed work around they’ve "developed" is pure ********.

 

[snipr125]

Big respect to my fellow 12 Mini members on this thread, but sorry guys I just way prefer Touch ID to Face ID on my 12 mini. I have actually turned it off, as for some reason the Face ID scanners cause really uncomfortable pressure in my eyes. Its fine though, I am happy to use PIN code on my beloved 12 mini and have gotten used to it, but I really miss Touch ID from my SE2, 8+ and 6s+. Power button Touch ID on my Air 4 is just fantastic to use.

Face ID definitely has more potential though, especially the attention awareness on the lock screen to only show messages if you are looking at the screen. You don't get that kind of functionality with Touch ID.