As some of you know, the Pixel 7 series devices come with a facial scanning feature dubbed Face Unlock. The Pixel 6 series users were hoping that feature will become available for them as well, but that won’t be the case. Face Unlock is not coming to the Pixel 6 Pro, and that goes for other first-gen Tensor phones.
Face Unlock not coming to the Pixel 6 Pro, unfortunately
This information has been revealed by Caschy’s Blog, and it comes directly from Google. Google Germany seemingly shared the information with Caschy’s Blog, at least according to the shared information.
Now, we’re not sure if Google cannot bring Face Unlock to other devices due to a hardware limitation, or if it simply doesn’t want to. Face Unlock is using the Tensor G2 in combination with the front camera on the Pixel 7 series, by the way.
The Pixel 6 Pro does have that front-facing camera, unlike the Pixel 6, but it has the first-gen Tensor SoC. It would probably be possible for Google to implement some sort of facial scanning, but not the same one. That would require developing an entirely new approach due to the lack of the Tensor G2, and it seems like that is of no interest to Google.
Google’s new Face Unlock feature will stay exclusive to the Pixel 7 series, at least for now. Do note that the Pixel 7 series does not have any advanced sensors for scanning your face, as iPhones do.
Google is relying on the SoC and the front-facing camera for this feature
Google is relying on the SoC and the camera, in collaboration with machine learning, of course. Due to that fact, Google is also not allowing you to pay for stuff with Face Unlock. You’ll have to use other means of security for that, such as a fingerprint scanner. Luckily, both are available on the Pixel 7 series.
Face Unlock is basically made for locking and unlocking your phone on the Pixel 7 series. It’s not meant to be a full biometrics solution, but you can use it if you prefer it over a fingerprint scanner.
2022-10-11 15:08:36