Apple: Touch ID was never planned for iPhone X because Face ID is the future

When the iPhone X rumor mill began churning everything seemed to suggest Apple tried to fit a Touch ID sensor under the display, but failed. Now Apple is flatly denying those rumors, saying it spent “no time looking at fingerprints” for the iPhone X at all.

The comment comes from Apple Senior VP of Hardware Engineering, Dan Riccio, as part of TechCrunch’s iPhone X Review . Here’s the relevant excerpt:

Basically, Touch ID was never really part of the picture.

Of course, it’s still possible Apple considered implementing Touch ID under the display during very early design phases, before the iPhone X had solidified. That is to say, the same way any company might consider new technologies; Samsung was allegedly also looking into an under-display sensor.

However, Riccio’s comment goes against the rumor zeitgeist which suggested ditching Touch ID was a fairly last-minute move. In the spring, many or most iPhone X ‘leaks’ (then believed to be the iPhone 8), still showed the device with a fingerprint sensor either on the back or in the screen, as corroborated by a Bloomberg report in April.

But then, it’s possible those leakers simply got their hands one of those very, very early designs. By the time these reports were published, Apple may have been long past making Face ID its sole focus.

We’ll likely never know the exact timeline of things, but one thing is clear: Apple sees your face as the future of biometric security, not your fingerprint. Unless the company sees huge fallout from facial recognition, there’s a good chance this is the last year we’ll see fingerprint sensors on new iPhones .

It was nice knowing you, Touch ID.