Google is said to be continuing its work on bringing the facial recognition feature to the Pixel 6. Future devices including the upcoming Pixel 7 series are also expected to benefit from this feature. According to a new report citing industry sources, Google may be working on using an under-display fingerprint sensor with the Face Unlock feature. This approach is reportedly energy efficient and is expected to work on a wide range of Pixel smartphones. Notably, the Pixel 6 Pro was rumored to come with Face Unlock, however, the feature was reportedly pulled closer to its launch.
According to 9to5Google report goodGoogle is developing a version of Face Unlock that also uses an under-display fingerprint sensor. This new feature works by reducing the detection limit for the fingerprint sensor when the smartphone partially recognizes a face. As per the report, the accuracy requirement for fingerprint match will drop significantly.
Notably, this new feature does not require any new hardware to function. As such, this approach could bring the Face Unlock feature to both the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, and Google is reportedly testing the feature on these smartphones.
According to the report, using Face Unlock with fingerprint sensor may also work on Pixel 6a and other A-series Google smartphones. Even the upcoming Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro can use this feature. Notably, this approach is said to be more energy efficient than the traditional Face Unlock feature.
The report further mentions that this new approach could be Google’s ploy to get the best out of the below average under-display sensors on the Pixel 6 series of smartphones. The sensor detection speed is said to be slow compared to the speeds offered by other flagship smartphones like the Samsung Galaxy S22 lineup. Google has yet to officially announce plans to introduce a facial recognition-based system for its Pixel smartphone lineup.
