Iphone X/Xs FaceID Tips
(Edit: Bumped this thread in case some are new to FaceID and will find the tips helpful)
Since this is a relatively new technology, thought I'll start a thread for iPhone X/Xs owners to share your FaceID tips.
Three common situations which I encountered in the first few days of my usage with FaceID on the iPhone X:
1. Unusual Facial Expressions
There was one day I playfully held an air bubble in my cheek, and was puzzled why my iphone refused to unlock. Another time I was biting my tongue. And another time I held my hand up to my chin and covered my mouth. Some of these times we are oblivious that we are altering how our face would look to the phone.
So my advice is once you enroll your face in setup, do a few lock and unlock sessions with these different expressions. You might be prompted with a password entry - just enter the password while holding on to your expression. After that you will find FaceID works pretty much seamlessly. (See bottom for Reference)
2. Face too close to phone
For those of us who wear specs, especially when we get up first thing in the morning without our specs - we have a tendency to hold the phone closer than usual. I was wondering why it didn't work at that distance until I turned on the selfie camera. I realize only half my face was visible to the camera. I believe it would be the same with the IR cam.
No quick fix for this one - it would have to be muscle memory. In the same way we have to learn where to put our finger in the right place for the fingerprint scanner, we have to learn the minimal distance for FaceID to work
3. Eyes not looking at the phone
The first time I was driving with the iPhone X in the car holder, there were a few times the phone didn't unlock. Then I realize while driving, my eyes were on the road when I tap the screen. I guess this is a good thing - our eyes SHOULD be on the road. When the car came to a stop at junction, there was no problem unlocking the iphone X when I gave it my full attention.
If this is bothering you - you can always turn OFF "Require Attention for Face ID" in Settings for FaceID. This will also help if you have sunshades that don't work with FaceID. But with this setting off, it would mean someone can just put the phone in front of your face when you sleep and unlock the phone.
Hope these personal experiences helped. Do share what other tips you may have found pertaining to FACE ID.
REFERENCES:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16373710/face-id-iphone-x-apple-facial-recognition-impostor
https://images.apple.com/business/docs/FaceID_Security_Guide.pdf
"Conversely, if Face ID fails to recognize you, but the match quality is higher than a certain threshold and you immediately follow the failure by entering your passcode, Face ID takes another capture and augments its enrolled Face ID data with the newly calculated mathematical representation. "
******************
(Edit: Bumped this thread in case some are new to FaceID and will find the tips helpful)
Since this is a relatively new technology, thought I'll start a thread for iPhone X/Xs owners to share your FaceID tips.
Three common situations which I encountered in the first few days of my usage with FaceID on the iPhone X:
1. Unusual Facial Expressions
There was one day I playfully held an air bubble in my cheek, and was puzzled why my iphone refused to unlock. Another time I was biting my tongue. And another time I held my hand up to my chin and covered my mouth. Some of these times we are oblivious that we are altering how our face would look to the phone.
So my advice is once you enroll your face in setup, do a few lock and unlock sessions with these different expressions. You might be prompted with a password entry - just enter the password while holding on to your expression. After that you will find FaceID works pretty much seamlessly. (See bottom for Reference)
2. Face too close to phone
For those of us who wear specs, especially when we get up first thing in the morning without our specs - we have a tendency to hold the phone closer than usual. I was wondering why it didn't work at that distance until I turned on the selfie camera. I realize only half my face was visible to the camera. I believe it would be the same with the IR cam.
No quick fix for this one - it would have to be muscle memory. In the same way we have to learn where to put our finger in the right place for the fingerprint scanner, we have to learn the minimal distance for FaceID to work
3. Eyes not looking at the phone
The first time I was driving with the iPhone X in the car holder, there were a few times the phone didn't unlock. Then I realize while driving, my eyes were on the road when I tap the screen. I guess this is a good thing - our eyes SHOULD be on the road. When the car came to a stop at junction, there was no problem unlocking the iphone X when I gave it my full attention.
If this is bothering you - you can always turn OFF "Require Attention for Face ID" in Settings for FaceID. This will also help if you have sunshades that don't work with FaceID. But with this setting off, it would mean someone can just put the phone in front of your face when you sleep and unlock the phone.
Hope these personal experiences helped. Do share what other tips you may have found pertaining to FACE ID.
REFERENCES:
https://www.theverge.com/2017/9/27/16373710/face-id-iphone-x-apple-facial-recognition-impostor
https://images.apple.com/business/docs/FaceID_Security_Guide.pdf
"Conversely, if Face ID fails to recognize you, but the match quality is higher than a certain threshold and you immediately follow the failure by entering your passcode, Face ID takes another capture and augments its enrolled Face ID data with the newly calculated mathematical representation. "
******************
One of the best tips I've read and tried. I set up Face ID again with the phone held nearer my waist level - and it read all my different facial expressions off the bat.
"When you first set up Face ID on your iPhone X, you probably held the phone up at eye level, which is how we’ve seen it done in Apple’s demos. Instead, you should set it up with your iPhone held well below eye level, closer to where it’ll be when you unlock it. That’s right, it’s time to forget everything you know about taking a good selfie and wear that double chin like a badge of honor."
http://bgr.com/2017/11/06/iphone-x-features-how-to-make-face-id-faster/
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