Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, Apple has made face id useful again in iOS 15.4 by finally adding the ability to use the face unlock feature while wearing a face mask.
Review by the user:
I’ve been testing out the new ios 15.4 beta for a few days, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well Face ID works with a mask — in addition to simply enjoying being able to use my iPhone the way it was originally intended to work, instead of mashing in a six-digit passcode a dozen times whenever I leave the house.
Nearly two years into the COVID-19 pandemic, apple has made face id useful again in iOS 15.4 by finally adding the ability to use the face unlock feature while wearing a face mask.
I’ve been testing out the new ios 15.4 beta for a few days, and I’ve been pleasantly surprised at how well Face ID works with a mask — in addition to simply enjoying being able to use my iPhone the way it was originally intended to work, instead of mashing in a six-digit passcode a dozen times whenever I leave the house.
iOS 15.4, though, aims to fix that by simply making Face ID work when wearing a mask, zeroing in on details on the top portion of people’s faces to identify them correctly and unlock the phone. It’s not Apple’s first attempt at solving the Face ID / mask issue: iOS 13.5 would recognize when you were wearing a mask and show the password prompt more quickly, and the company added a feature for automatically unlocking your iPhone when wearing an Apple Watch in last year's 14.5 update. But the new Face ID mask support is a much more streamlined solution that has the benefit of not requiring the purchase of additional Apple hardware.
Apple really wants to make sure that customers know that it’s adding the new Face ID option. After installing iOS 15.4 (at least in its current beta form), the first thing you’ll see is a splash screen asking if you’d like to enable Face ID with a mask. Setting up the feature is relatively simple, although you’ll have to re-register your face (presumably so Apple can dial in even further on the details around your eyes).
Once you’ve done that, though, Face ID with a mask — for the most part — works really well, which is to say that it works at unlocking your iPhone when you look at it, even when wearing a cloth face mask or more substantial N95.
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