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For me, the biggest pain point with Touch ID was that it didn't work well in the rain, which is precisely the moment when the touch screen for manual password doesn't work all that great either.

I'm hoping masks are more of a transient thing, long-term, than the rain.

FaceID doesn’t work with sunglasses on either. It would be nice if we could just have both to cover most weather scenarios. Of course too much face covering and gloves in the winter and neither are going to work then (;

It works with sunglasses for me, which has always made me wonder how well it's actually working

It definitely doesn’t work with mine, just a black pair of Ray-Bans. I just tried it again to make sure it hasn’t changed with the latest update. I use my phone as an offline GPS for hiking and it’s been a constant frustration for me, as there is a significant delay before it gives you the keypad after FaceID fails. I’ve tried setting up an “alternative appearance” in FaceID with my sunglasses on and it just complains that my face is obstructed.

If it can't see your eyes because you have lenses that block infrared light, then it can't tell if you're looking at the screen.

You can turn off "Required Attention for Face ID" in the Settings as a workaround.

If I designed the system, I would be continuously training the FaceID model to account for false negatives based on a correctly entered PIN after a failed FaceID unlock.

When FaceID was announced, they also said it should also continue to work with varying amounts of facial hair - which I have also found to be true.

FaceID works off of infrared light, so if your lenses don't block those wavelengths, it works.

The "trick" for this to work flawlessly (at least for myself) is to set up regular face-ID; and then setup an "alternate" appearance with sunglasses or whatever other items/accessories might cause problems.

Never had any issues; especially if you setup the alternate appearance with a mask / partially obstructed face.

Polarized sunglasses block the phone's sensors, so it can't confirm you're actually looking at the screen—That someone isn't trying to unlock it e.g. while you're asleep.

If you turn off "Require Attention for Face ID" in Face ID settings it'll work with sunglasses.

According to Apple, "Face ID is designed to work with hats, scarves, glasses, contact lenses, and many sunglasses." (https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT208108) and from my experience, it works fine with my polarized sunglasses, but it sounds like it doesn't work for everyone.

I was doing work with latex gloves on (clean and dry) and was shocked to find that Touch ID on my iPhone 8+ worked pretty reliably through the glove.

> Even on iOS 15.4 it only works for unlocking, and not for payment. ( Which seems like there are two level of security with Face ID, but I haven't seen any decent explanation yet)

I thought this was sucky also, but then realized payment could be done with my Apple Watch without unlocking as long as the watch was unlocked (and is somewhat secure because the watch auto locks when it comes off your wrist). This is really convenient, and now I’m using my watch for most of my payments.

> May be a wearable like Apple Watch is the solution to all of these. But I dislike Apple watch. Digital Crown should be in the middle, and I still prefer my watch in circle. And I just dont like charging my watch every other day.

Ah, so you already know the trick then, but can’t take advantage of it. Holding out will get worse as things like AutoKey become more pervasive (unlock your car or house by bringing your watch up to the lock, no unlock or explicit activation needed). Also, you can use your watch to unlock your phone (I guess, my security policy at work doesn’t let me try it).

I know you mentioned not liking the Apple Watch, but if you do have one, FaceID works just fine with masks when you have an Apple Watch paired and the feature enabled.

It works just fine until it doesn't. I went on a trip last week that involved frequent mask wearing. Unlock with Apple Watch worked on the first day, then every unlock after that involved typing in my passcode or pulling down my mask. No amount of restarting/airplane mode cycling got it working again... until I got home.

The year FaceID came out I was in a country where mask wearing was popular (pre-covid) I was so frustrated that my new phone couldn't open easily and this is after years of Apple claiming to promote "diversity". Instead of only focusing on hiring people with the same backgrounds who look different, I wish they would actually focus on getting people who live differently.

> FaceID doesn't work with mask.

The latest iOS beta adds this.

> there are two level of security with Face ID, but I haven't seen any decent explanation yet

Easy answer: confidence intervals