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Comment by csours | Hacker News Reader

I can only hope they will revisit face unlock in the era of face masks. I greatly prefered fingerprint unlock. I treat either of these as tamper resistance rather than actual security, but I find fingerprint unlock to be a much better experience.

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According to this review the 4a has a rear-mounted fingerprint reader:

> Google carried over the rear-mounted fingerprint reader of the Pixel 3a. Color me a fan. The 3a had a fairly deep divot with a different finish on the fingerprint reader itself. Google made the Pixel 4a’s fingerprint reader blend in better with the body. Both the reader and the rear shell have the same matte texture and black color, and the back of the phone even curves inward towards the reader to make it feel more cohesive.

https://www.androidauthority.com/google-pixel-4a-review-1140...

Agreed; I don't see face unlock significantly more convenient in than fingerprint unlock. I guess it's a little more automatic, but I find I have to wiggle my phone around any way in order to get it to recognize my face. In practice, I end up having to spend the same amount of time making faces at my phone as I did touching the fingerprint sensor.

Even before face-masks, I found that my Pixel 4 can't recognize me with a bike helmet on. I have a phone mount on my handlebars and fingerprint-unlocking is very convenient (not while moving, obviously). Also if I'm driving, I can hand the phone to my wife and finger-unlock it without looking away from the road, which is definitely not possible with a face-unlock.

This model looks to have a fingerprint reader, which may be good news to you. You can see the outline in the main photo, and it is also listed in the tech specs: https://store.google.com/product/pixel_4a_specs

I just moved from pixel to iphone, and the thing I miss the most is the "trusted bluetooth device" mechanism to keep the phone unlocked. I used to have that enabled for my garmin watch, and it kept my phone unlocked for up to 4 hours.

This was way, way better than face id or fingerprints during covid (eg, face id does not work b/c of masks, fingerprints don't work b/c of gloves).

Now that you mention it, it’s a little surprising Apple hasn’t done that. It exists on the Mac so why not my iPhone or iPad?

It's not on the Mac, what Apple Watch and Mac does is unlock the Mac when it locks. It doesn't keep it unlocked like the OP mentioned.

For anyone wondering: Pixel 3 had a fingerprint sensor for unlocking the screen, but Pixel 4 removed it and replaced it with a face unlock. Regardless of whether face unlock works - sometimes it's inconvenient to position yourself for it (e.g. if you have bags in your hand, are driving, browsing/reading with phone on a surface, in bed, etc).

Some skipped Pixel 4 due to removing it. They considered fingerprint reading to be one of Pixel 3's most helpful features.

We still don't know if Pixel 5 will have it or not.

Yeap, I am not going to buy pixel 5 if it does have that weird fingerprint reader behind it.

Best scenario for me is having fingerprint reader under the screen.

Another downside: lots of apps don't implement face unlock. Many banking apps have fingerprint only, either because they develop slower or because so many Android phones have botched biometrics that it can't generally be used for apps requiring real security, and would need a whitelisting exception for Pixel 4.

FaceID is terrible when driving. I often have my passenger read and send texts for me, on my iPhone 6S I just had to grab the phone and put my thumb on it. With my iPhone 11, I need to lift it up in front of my wheel, and look directly at it instead of the road, because if you aren't looking at it then it won't unlock.

There is a setting to require attention (eye contact with the phone) or not, enabled by default. Try disabling that?

Alternatively, stop using your phone while you're driving. It's illegal to hold it in your hand while driving in many (most?) states now.

Half the use case for siri is texting while you drive.

I don't know, touching the fingerprint reader as your passenger holds the phone doesn't seem any more distracting than changing the radio station.

Check out Carplay

I also am not a fan of facial unlock, I would much rather have a finger print reader like previous models. Though I will say if my hands are sweaty it doesn't work, which is a bit annoying.

This is why I have both the fingerprint AND face unlock on on my phone :) The combo of the two covers 99% of cases IME.

Not very secure either, but pair a miband4 with smart unlock. 3-4 weeks of battery life, works with gloves and masks/scarves. Keep keychain or throw it in backpack. The 1st party app lets you adjust unlock distance by range. Anyone in range can unlock your device, but works well in terms of convenience.

Fingerprint unlock never worked for me (on any of my devices) because as a rock climber my fingerprints rub off. For about 2 years I could never get any fingerprint readers to work for more than a few days.

So I had to get a Pixel 4 because it has Face Unlock, which works almost too well to be honest.

I have the same climber/fingerprint issues and spend way more time typing in passwords and phone unlock codes than I would prefer.

I'm actually rehabbing an injury at the moment and haven't touched the rock in almost a month. This week, all my devices magically sprang to life and I can get in to them instantly with just a touch of the finger.

It's amazing, this world that everybody else is living in.

Fortunately, a lot of Android phones these days offer both systems, so you can use whichever is most convenient for you at the moment.

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