There are two big changes coming with the iPhone X - that sharp, bezel-free, OLED display, and the fact you need to unlock it with your face rather than your fingerprint. Questions have been raised about just how well that Face ID system is going to work, but Apple is promising people will soon grow to love it.
Speaking to TechCrunch and John Gruber's Talk Show, Apple SVP of Software Engineering Craig Federighi answered a few questions on how Face ID works and why it's an upgrade over Touch ID. He confirmed that you can squeeze your phone to disable Face ID if needed, and said once people get to try the tech, their doubts will fade away.
"We're just all counting the days that customers can finally get their hands on these," says Federighi. "Because I think just like with Touch ID, initially people thought oh, 'Apple's done something that's totally not going to work and I'm not a believer and I'm not gonna use this feature.' Now everyone's worried because they can't imagine life without Touch ID. We're going to see exactly the same thing with Face ID."
Touch ID, shades and privacy
The Apple exec also confirmed that Face ID will be the future of biometric authentication on the company's phones - which sounds like a return for Touch ID is unlikely - although he did admit there are certain situations where a combination of unlock methods make sense from a security perspective.
Most types of sunglasses will work with Face ID, Federighi says, and he explained that Apple added the swipe up gesture to the unlock process to give users time to check their notifications before getting into their apps.
Federighi was also keen to emphasize that Apple doesn't store any data on your face and so can't pass it over to law enforcement agencies - as with Touch ID, everything is saved securely on your phone. What's more, not using Face ID for 48 hours or five failed attempts to unlock will disable the feature (which is what happened in Apple's on-stage demo of the tech on Tuesday).
