According to two respected tech experts, iPhones won’t have under-display Face ID or under-display Touch ID for another two years.
Under-display Face ID is expected to be introduced on the iPhone 16 in 2024, according to display expert Ross Young. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Touch ID fingerprint security will not be available on an iPhone until at least 2025. This was in response to Kuo’s tweet.
Face ID and the selfie camera are now housed in a notch on the iPhone 13 line-up. For the iPhone 14, this is expected to remain the same, but the iPhone 14 Pro is speculated to have smaller pill and punch-hole shaped display cut-outs for the iPhone 14. However, unlike a genuine under-display system, the front camera and Face ID sensors will still be visible.
The 2023 iPhone 15 Pro was previously rumoured to be the model to incorporate Face ID under-display. With almost a year to go until this phone is expected to go on sale, further speculations and leaks are certain to arise to clear up this discrepancy.
A neat and simple feature, Facial ID-style face unlocking has certain drawbacks. In the last few years, owing to the widespread usage of face masks during the epidemic, under-display fingerprint readers like those found on the current Samsung Galaxy S22 or Google Pixel 6 and many more Android phones have proven much more handy than Face ID.
Many believed that Apple will bring back Touch ID to the iPhone because of this and because of the desire of its customers. However, with the introduction of Face ID in iOS 15.4, the requirement for a fingerprint sensor on the iPhone has diminished.
In the meanwhile, we’ll have to make do without the possibility of unlocking the iPhone through the display. The iPhone 14 will come in September, as usual, with a fresh design and a new iPhone 14 Max variant to replace the iPhone 13 small, so there’s still hope.