KUALA LUMPUR, April 30 — With the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic, more people are wearing face masks as a safety measure.
Apple is aware that face masks are making it harder for people to unlock their Face ID enabled iPhone models such as the iPhone X, XS and the iPhone 11 series.
To mitigate the problem, there’s a new update which lets you bypass Face ID if you’re wearing a mask.
At the moment, iPhone with Face ID enabled will try to unlock with your face by default. If that fails, you’ll have to swipe up in order to unlock via passcode.
Obviously, this can be frustrating when you leave home to buy essentials or perform essential duties during the movement control order.
For the upcoming iOS 13.5, a new tweak was found on the beta version which allows you to skip Face ID altogether. If you’re wearing a face mask, you’ll see the keypad immediately on your iPhone. As illustrated by PhoneArena, it will look something like the screen above.
As pointed out by @Sonikku_a2, if you’re wearing a mask, iOS 13.5 goes straight to the passcode screen if you try to unlock with Face ID (keypad not shown because iOS hides it in screen recordings) pic.twitter.com/bQCzu5u20p
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) April 29, 2020
The good thing about this update is that you can still keep your Face ID enabled for faster unlocking when you’re not wearing a mask. iOS 13.5 is currently available for beta users and it is expected to be rolled out to the public very soon.
In case you missed it, there are other alternatives to “hack” Face ID to work with a face mask on. However, it isn’t reliable and it could potentially compromise your phone’s security.
The face mask issue doesn’t affect older iPhone models that still rely on Touch ID. This also includes the new iPhone SE which still uses fingerprint authentication instead of face unlock. — SoyaCincau
