I Miss You, Touch ID
In Apple’s own words, Face ID is fast, easy, and intuitive. To me, it’s slow, frustrating and annoying.
I have no idea how many times I unlock my iPhone per day, but if I had to guess I’d say it’s probably over 100 times. So the process of unlocking the phone better be easy and fast, like Apple claims Face ID is. From someone who has been using it for the past three months, I tend to disagree.
The problem I have is simple, it doesn’t work half the time. I guess I shouldn’t be too surprised — it didn’t even work during it’s introduction at the iPhone X Keynote last year. Yes, the Keynote where nothing ever fails. Bottom line, I find myself wishing more and more that I had Touch ID instead.
In my mind, Touch ID is the tried and true approach that worked every time. No need to angle your phone a certain way or make sure you have it close enough to your face or make sure your eyeballs are looking directly at the screen. I think that last part is the biggest problem I have with it (even with the “require attention” setting turned off). With Touch ID I could feel around for the home button while taking the phone out of my pocket and start unlocking it immediately. By the time I got it out and up into view, my phone would usually be unlocked and ready to go. Face ID slows this process down, even when it works as it should and recognizes your face at first glance.
I get why Apple ditched Touch ID and developed Face ID. They had to. There is no place for the home button on this newly designed iPhone, so it makes sense. But, call me crazy, I just don’t think it’s worth the trade-off and prefer the older style iPhone with the home button and Touch ID.
