‘Great Secret Features’ and ‘Nasty Surprises’ are my regular columns investigating the best features / biggest problems hidden behind the headlines.
Unearthed by PhoneArena it turns out the polarising yet undeniably exciting Face ID facial recognition system in the upcoming iPhone X has a very clever trick up its sleeve: it protects your privacy with just a glance.
In practice what this means is Face ID actively scans the face of anyone who looks or even glances at your iPhone X. If you, as owner, glance at it you will see the details of your notifications on the lock screen. If you are not authorised on Face ID it will detect a stranger and hide these details.
For example, you have new Facebook and Mail notifications and glance at your iPhone X, Face ID recognises your face and you can see it is a birthday reminder and an email from your boss. If a colleague glances at your iPhone X they will only see a blank notification from Facebook and a blank notification from Mail.
Yes many questions remain around Face ID: will it be as reliable as Touch ID? Will it be as convenient as Touch ID for everyday tasks like quickly unlocking your phone on the move or verifying an Apple Pay transaction at the checkout? But while the jury remains out here, there’s no way Touch ID could match this level of ‘security at a glance’.
Furthermore the iPhone X is not the only new iPhone to benefit here. PhoneArena also points out iOS 11 has introduced a setting many users may have missed.
Navigate to Settings > Notifications > Show Previews > When Unlocked and your iPhone will similarly flash up notifications in the lock screen but show no detail. To see that you have to unlock the phone first.
Admittedly this isn’t as cool as the iPhone X adjusting your settings automatically from a glance, but it will remain a useful secret feature for many looking to guard their privacy.
As for those now even more convinced the iPhone X will be their next smartphone? Join the (very long) queue…
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