For years, iPhone users have wanted a Touch ID system built into the screens of their devices.
Apple has reportedly been working on this, although odds are it won’t make an appearance in the iPhone 13.
Rumors of a reintroduction of Touch ID to the iPhone have floated for a while, but while a relocated sensor has been used in products such as the iPad Air, the biometric authentication system has yet to make it back to the iPhone. Per Mark Gurman’s Power On newsletter, that won’t be happening in 2021, at least.
Reports of Apple testing in-screen Touch ID in a next-gen iPhone surfaced in January alongside a new in-screen optical system accompanying the company’s existing Face ID technology. By March, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo forecast that Apple would not add Touch ID to the iPhone with the next launch, advising that its survey of the supply chain indicated there was no timeline for its adoption.
It’s also thought that Apple is pursuing another “long-term goal” of implementing Face ID in two theoretical fashions.
The first involves the high-end Pro models having in-screen Face ID, while non-pro models continue with a notch-based approach. The second has the premium end gaining in-screen Face ID, while the value-priced devices have in-screen Touch ID.
Stay tuned for additional details as they become available.
Via AppleInsider and Bloomberg