According to a recent report from The Wall Street Journal, the upcoming Apple iPhone 8 will not sport Touch ID. The report citing sources familiar with Apple’s plans, says that Apple had initially tried to put Touch ID on the iPhone 8 underneath the device’s display. However, unfortunately, they could not get it to work properly in time for the phone’s launch and decided to do away with the feature entirely.
In a potential upside, the report also claims that Apple is indeed planning to roll out a facial identification unlock feature with the iPhone 8, which will act as something of a replacement to Touch ID. The report is in line with previous rumors that claimed iPhone 8 could skip Touch ID and introduce a new facial scanning feature as an alternative.
The move to abandon Touch ID in favor of facial scanning is kind of a risky move. This is because we have seen how facial recognition systems have been beaten using photographs and the most recent example being Samsung’s Galaxy S8. Therefore, for Apple to not offer up a backup biometric security system is a huge gamble.
In fact, there have been some rumors suggesting that at one point Apple could have toyed with the idea of maybe putting Touch ID on the back of the phone. Unfortunately, it remained as a rumor and nothing came out of it.
Apple also reportedly had issues with the OLED display of the new smartphone, and manufacturing saw several setbacks. There is no confirmation as to how those delays and issues will affect the initial supply of the iPhone 8, or potentially push back its shipping date, but either way, it is not great news if you were hoping to score the new top-of-the-line iPhone in the launch window.
We will finally get to see what Apple has been working on shortly, with the event in just a few days (September 12, 2017), which is when the new iPhones will be announced. The hype is already huge, so Apple certainly has its work cut out for it.
