The iPhone X was recently released and it comes with many new changes. While there were tons of changes in iOS and under the hood, the biggest change was the removal of the Home button. The Home button that houses the fingerprint scanner (pun intended) has been removed from the device. Instead, Apple introduced Face ID, a supposedly better and more secure biometric security system. Unlike Face Unlock on Android devices and Iris Scanner on Galaxy S8/S8+ or Note 8, Face ID relies on a completely different technology. It uses a dot projector to place over 30,000 invisible dots on your face, and a flood illuminator and an infrared camera to emit infrared light to read all that information. All data is then collected and processed to create an accurate 3D map of your face.
While this all sounds great now, Apple has made great strides in improving its privacy features even further. So, there are some cases where your Face ID may disable itself to ensure your privacy. Previously, on previous iPhones, you only had to press the power button 5 times to turn off Touch ID. With iPhone X, Face ID will disable itself:
- If you enter the emergency screen or try to turn off the device
- If you restart your device
- If you haven’t unlocked your iPhone X using Face ID for more than 48 hours
- If there are 2 unsuccessful unlock attempts using Face ID
- If you haven’t unlocked the phone with a Passcode/Pin/Password in six and a half days
So, to re-enable Face ID, simply unlock your device using your PIN or Password, then relock your device and try to unlock it again using Face ID. Additionally, if you’re not really buying the hype around Face ID, you can disable Face ID entirely by going to Settings->Face ID & Passcode.
