Video: The fastest way to unlock your iPhone X with Face ID
There is a lot of chatter about people disappointed with the speed of unlocking the iPhone X with Face ID versus just about anything else with Touch ID. AppleInsider talks about it, and how to speed it up.
Face ID is slow for some people is because they're waiting until they see the unlock icon pop up before swiping. But, we've been using the iPhone X since before it shipped and have noticed that you don't have to wait at all before swiping up.
The reason there is a little bit of lag time with Face ID is because the TrueDepth system has to first project infrared dots on your face and then scan those dots before authentication can begin.
Touch ID seems instant because all it has to do is scan your fingerprint, which doesn't have as many variables as your Face does for scanning. And, with rest finger to open enabled, it becomes even faster.
Although Face ID may be a slight bit slower than Touch ID, we may as well try our best to make it as quick as possible. Let's get started.
The raise to wake and tap to wake features are enabled by default, but still make sure that those are on.
A good habit to make to increase the speed of Face ID is to always have your thumb or finger hovering over the bottom of the screen before waking the iPhone X, so that way it's always ready to swipe.
Tap to wake seems to work the fastest, so let's start with that. There's a couple things you can practice to speed up the process.
First, you should find the lowest spot on the screen that consistently wakes your device, then practice swiping to find the most comfortable starting point of the swipe where it's also consistent. The distance of your swipe can actually be pretty short, so practice making the swipe up shorter as well.
And finally, practice tapping and swiping as fast as you possibly can, completely ignoring whether the screen has turned on yet. Then slow down the process until your iPhone X consistently unlocks.
We've actually found that the device can still unlock even if you started the swipe before the screen turned on, so keep that in mind.
Using raise to wake, you eliminate the need to tap, but the angle at which the screen will wake changes with how fast you raise the iPhone X.
After some practice you can really get the hang of it and also start the swipe before you see the screen wake. Just make sure to hover your thumb over the bottom of the screen while raising it.
Of course there's the side button, but it's not as quick if you're holding your phone with one hand. You can definitely try bringing your thumb down to swipe as fast as you can, but it's not as comfortable, and harder to get consistency between actions.
Using two hands, however, is definitely pretty quick. Remember that practice makes perfect, so don't stress out if you're having trouble getting it right.
Face ID is slow for some people is because they're waiting until they see the unlock icon pop up before swiping. But, we've been using the iPhone X since before it shipped and have noticed that you don't have to wait at all before swiping up.
The reason there is a little bit of lag time with Face ID is because the TrueDepth system has to first project infrared dots on your face and then scan those dots before authentication can begin.
Touch ID seems instant because all it has to do is scan your fingerprint, which doesn't have as many variables as your Face does for scanning. And, with rest finger to open enabled, it becomes even faster.
Although Face ID may be a slight bit slower than Touch ID, we may as well try our best to make it as quick as possible. Let's get started.
The raise to wake and tap to wake features are enabled by default, but still make sure that those are on.
A good habit to make to increase the speed of Face ID is to always have your thumb or finger hovering over the bottom of the screen before waking the iPhone X, so that way it's always ready to swipe.
Tap to wake seems to work the fastest, so let's start with that. There's a couple things you can practice to speed up the process.
First, you should find the lowest spot on the screen that consistently wakes your device, then practice swiping to find the most comfortable starting point of the swipe where it's also consistent. The distance of your swipe can actually be pretty short, so practice making the swipe up shorter as well.
And finally, practice tapping and swiping as fast as you possibly can, completely ignoring whether the screen has turned on yet. Then slow down the process until your iPhone X consistently unlocks.
We've actually found that the device can still unlock even if you started the swipe before the screen turned on, so keep that in mind.
Using raise to wake, you eliminate the need to tap, but the angle at which the screen will wake changes with how fast you raise the iPhone X.
After some practice you can really get the hang of it and also start the swipe before you see the screen wake. Just make sure to hover your thumb over the bottom of the screen while raising it.
Of course there's the side button, but it's not as quick if you're holding your phone with one hand. You can definitely try bringing your thumb down to swipe as fast as you can, but it's not as comfortable, and harder to get consistency between actions.
Using two hands, however, is definitely pretty quick. Remember that practice makes perfect, so don't stress out if you're having trouble getting it right.
Comments
That said, I’ve noticed the whole time that as long as I held the phone close enough it unlocked very quickly and, as mentioned, I don’t need to wait for the animation to complete. Most times I can just look at the phone and swipe.
Also, Face ID seems to work much more frequently than TouchID did for me. Don’t get me wrong, I have/had no issues with TouchID, but it didn’t work 100% of the time. It wasn’t uncommon for me to have to reposition my finger or try again or just enter my password. That happens much less frequently with Face ID. So, even if it’s a tad slower to unlock with Face ID, I probably spend less time futzing with it than I did with Touch ID, and ultimately save time in the long run.
It's not just the initial unlock which is better, for apps which used to require touch ID to unlock the app you'd see the touchID symbol, then have to place your thumb to authenticate. Since you're already looking at the screen, FaceID starts scanning you and moves though the process before you really notice it happened and without you having to do anything except keep looking.
The only instance in which FaceID is worse for me is phone lying on the desk I'm sitting at. I can't unlock it in-place which I used to be able to do with an index finger on the button, I have to tilt it up enough to face me so I can scan my face. I don't know if that's something software may be able to fix with the current hardware or it will require an even larger dot projector/scanner which can look 'sideways'. Even with that less-optimal case, I find FaceID better than TouchID ever was.
The only place where I miss TouchID is when I'm buying something on the App Store/ iTunes Store. Just resting my finger on the Home Button was easier than pressing the Power Button twice on the iPhone X.
It's probably muscle memory and I'll get used to it.
Oversll Face ID has been much better than Touch ID. With my iPhone 6 Plus fingerprints would only last a week. After that my finger would be totally unrecognized even though I went through the extra step of scanning the sane thumb for all 5 fingerprint slots.
Face ID does not seem to be fading at all. I even got a free replacement iPhone 6 Plus twice and Touch ID still faded after a week. First replacement was when the LTE band mysteriously died, the second time was after the replacement’s screen developed Touch Disease (Google it).
In normal use, I have the habit of locking the device whenever I have finished with it.
Tap to wake is a nice addition to the iPhone.
Also, swiping isn’t that big a deal and isn’t much of a time waste. As I mentioned earlier, I spend less total time with Face ID than I did with TouchID not always reading my fingerprint on the first try.
So, swiping up is terrible but swiping down is fine. Got it.
This is much less of a deal than you are making it out to be. Do you have iPhone X or are you just speculating on how the experience is?
I held the phone to the side and a decent length away from my face to simulate where the phone holder would be affixed.
I then turned on the selfie camera and set the angle to cut off my face completely, only showing my ear, and it unlocked.
Afterwards, I changed the angle to completely cut my head off and it didn't unlock.
So you can place your current iPhone (if you have one) on your phone holder in the car, and turn on the selfie camera. If you can at least see your ear, you should be fine.