Google is working on Face ID knockoff for Android

In 2017, “the Apple iPhone X [was] the first smartphone from a major device maker to combine a Time of Flight (TOF) sensor, IR illuminator, dot projector, and other sensors for hardware facial recognition (Apple calls it ‘Face ID’),” Mishaal Rahman writes for XDA-Devleopers.
“We’ve seen a few smartphones with Face ID-like implementations from Android device makers like Huawei’s Mate 20 Pro and Xiaomi’s Mi 8 Explorer Edition, but these device makers have had to heavily customize Android to support this new hardware,” Rahman writes. “However, it seems that Google is working on bringing native support for secure facial recognition hardware in Android Q.”
“We’ve spotted dozens of strings and multiple methods, classes, and fields related to facial recognition in the framework, SystemUI, and Settings APKs in the leaked AOSP build of Android Q that we obtained. None of the code that we found is present in AOSP master or the latest Android Pie public release,” Rahman writes. “Furthermore, the existing ‘face unlock’ feature that has existed on Android devices for many years now, the ‘Trusted Face’ feature, is part of Google Play Services, is old, and is insecure, so we’re confident that this is a new feature in Android Q.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: You know, Google working so hard on this, two years after Apple brought it to market, because Face ID is nothing but a useless gimmick, right fragmandroid settlers?
Android. Always years behind Apple.
Have fun submitting detailed 3D maps of your faces to Google, Android-using fools.
Apple’s Face ID data – including mathematical representations of your face – is encrypted and protected with a key available only to the Secure Enclave within your iPhone or iPad. Face ID data doesn’t leave your device and is never backed up to iCloud or anywhere else.