Ever since the announcement of Face ID based iPhone X people have been speculating about whether the device will only allow user to register one face with their iPhone or will they be able to add more than one. Now TechCrunch is reporting that the registered faces per iPhone will be limited to just one, at least when the device launches in November.
This is different than Touch ID since users can add up to 5 fingerprints to their Touch ID enabled devices and use any one of those to unlock them. Due to this many users allowed their trusted family and friends to add their finger scan to one of the 5 Touch ID fingerprint slots. There are so many instances where both spouses could authenticate the same device using Touch ID. It is also not uncommon for families who own a single iPad for the household to have parents and kids store their fingerprints for quick authentication.
Being able to add just one face to the iPhone will be less convenient for users who share access to their iPhone with their significant others. You can still share your iPhone with a second person by telling them your passcode, but that isn’t really as convenient as scanning your finger or face especially when you are using the recommended 6 digit or custom passcode.
It is possible that Apple will allow users to add more than one faces to Face ID in the future, when Face ID makes its way to future iPads and Mac. iPhone is more of a personal device when compared to iPads and Macs, so it would make more sense then.
Many users have been requesting multiple logins on iPad, but Apple has yet to deliver multiuser support on iPads, so with Face ID in iPad’s future having the ability to add multiple faces to facial recognition based authentication method would sure be useful.
