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Comment by tambourine_man | Hacker News Reader

The death of Touch ID. Also huge.

Nothing like grabbing your phone by the button in your pocket and having it unlocked and open before you even lay eyes on it. As fast as they advertise faceid being it will never beat the fact you can engage touchid as soon as you lay a finger on the phone.

> Nothing like grabbing your phone by the button in your pocket and having it unlocked and open before you even lay eyes on it.

It's the perfect way to accidentally all of the things.

Accidentally open an app. Now you have to wait for it to load, and waste your network data and battery, before you can do what you really wanted to do.

Accidentally read that message, and also accidentally swipe it away while you fumble with your phone. You didn't want to see that message anyway.

Accidentally add that person to your contact groups. Yup, you added your boss to the conversation with your wife. Nobody will mind!

Accidentally read an email, and clicked on that phishing link. Cool beans, security relies on 2FA anyway, right? It's not like it could open an app and automagically read the SMS code, right?

Accidentally start playing video. Yes that video. In the conference room. It's nice that everyone has a great sense of humor!

Somehow that never happened to me

even better when you are app developer or your phone is just laying down on table - it was nice when you didn't have to pick it up to unlock it and put it down.

Yup, sad news.

Anyone who disagrees should try teaching an older relative with less than youthful fine motor control how to use a FaceID equipped iPhone.

I've had the opposite problem: both of my parents' (in their 80s) fingerprints have faded to the point that Touch ID no longer works reliably.

That is really interesting to me. I admittedly haven't played with it in a while but on previous Android phones I've had basically any patch of skin would register and work okay with the sensor. I know because I used to rock climb a lot which tears up fingerprints so I would register things like the backside of my index finger so I could unlock the phone while it sits on a table. It was definitely finickier than a proper fingerprint but preferable to retraining it every couple of days.

Specifically the swipe-up gestures you now need for the unlock / home navigations?

(I initially thought you might mean faceid doesn't work if you're a bit shaky, but I just tried that and it surprisingly doesn't care.)

FWIW: Face ID is optional, and the iOS passcode buttons are very accessible.

> Face ID is optional

Meanwhile, the Settings app keeps begging me to "Finish Setting Up Your iPhone".

I occasionally use my iPhone 8 Plus and don't immediately remember why it feels so nice to use. Then I remember it's the touch ID button

Touch ID is on the power button of iPad Air. Hopefully it will return on iPhone Air.

Very unlikely. Also, the Touch ID in the iPad Air (and iPad mini) doesn’t work quite as well as the round Touch ID sensors on the Home buttons, due to the narrower shape and the placement. As a power button it’s also a bit clunky.

> [rectangle] Touch ID doesn't work quite as well as the round Touch ID

Still more deterministic than Face ID.

There was also a rumor of in-display Touch ID.

I’d think that would be tricky to integrate with a decent case.

Agreed. FaceID is fundamentally less secure than TouchID. This is just gross.

No touch to unlock is one of the main things keeping me on Android

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