Apple explains what went wrong with its live iPhone X Face ID demo

On Tuesday, during Apple's big iPhone X and iPhone 8 launch event, the company suffered an embarrassing moment when a live demo of the iPhone X's new Face ID tech did not go as planned. This has spread across the web like wildfire but as it turns out, the issue wasn't directly tied to Face ID, but rather a different part of iOS.

Apple's Craig Federighi took to the stage on Tuesday, talking about how effortless Face ID should be compared to Touch ID. However, when he lifted the iPhone X to his face and attempted to unlock the phone, only to be told to enter a passcode instead. You can see a video of the incident below:

Rather than unlocking, the iPhone X asked for a passcode. As Apple explained to Yahoo, the reason behind this was due to the fact that multiple people handled the iPhone X before the live demo. Here is the full statement:

“People were handling the device for the stage demo ahead of time and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode.”

This is a security feature also present with Touch ID. If someone attempts to unlock your phone a number of times without your fingerprint, a passcode will be required to reactivate Touch ID. You also need to enter your passcode once every time your device restarts. It seems these same security precautions are in place for Face ID.

KitGuru Says: While the fact that Face ID didn't activate immediately on stage at Apple's event, anyone familiar with Touch ID should have been able to recognise what went wrong. Still, I must admit, I'm not convinced by Apple's Face ID feature just yet, it is something I'll need to try out for myself to be sure about it. 

Become a Patron!