Apple VP Confirms That Face ID Hasn’t Killed Touch ID for Future Devices

Apple is upgrading and expanding Face ID across its device lineup, but that doesn’t mean that Touch ID is going anywhere.

Greg Joswiak, the Cupertino tech giant’s Vice President of Product Marketing, told the Daily Express that Apple will continue to bring Face ID to more products in its lineup. He also added that Touch ID is still going to stick around for the foreseeable future. But on which devices?

Apple’s Biometric Systems

“Certainly, we’ll continue to put (Face ID) on more devices but also Touch ID will continue to have a role,” Joswiak said. “It’s a great technology on our iPad lineup and we don’t see it going away anytime soon.”

The VP continued to praise Touch ID, as it was one of the first consumer-facing biometric security systems on the market.

“It changed the way that people secured their devices, because at that time, even though it’s hard to imagine, many didn’t even have a passcode,” Joswiak said.

He added that Face ID was the company’s way of improving biometric security even further with “something more secure and convenient to use.”

Lastly, Joswiak noted that Face ID is a costly system due to the amount of “important and sophisticated technology” that it relies on. He contends that this is why many Android manufactures haven’t released a similar platform.

Most face-unlocking systems rely on a single camera, which is inherently much less secure than Face ID’s depth-mapping system. As Joswiak put it, “… security is night and day over someone trying to do this off a 2D image.”

Touch ID’s Role

While it seemed like Touch ID was on its way out, Apple did release new products this year that featured the fingerprint authentication method. Joswiak’s comments appear to confirm that Apple won’t kill Touch ID anytime soon.

Apple’s flagship products, including its iPhones and iPad Pros, have switched to Face ID. But the iPad Air, iPad mini, some of Apple’s MacBook products, and the iPhone 7 and 8 all retain Touch ID.

More than that, multiple reports have suggested that Apple is working on an iPhone with both authentication systems. One recent report hinted that Apple plans on releasing an iPhone with both Face ID and under-display Touch ID in 2020 or 2021. (Although that under-display system could be branded with a new name.)

As far as Face ID, Apple is upgrading it to be 30 percent faster in its upcoming iOS 13 update.