Will the Pixel 6 Pro get Face Unlock? Uncovered code strings suggest so

(Pocket-lint) - Google precocious introduced the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with in-display fingerprint scanners for biometric authentication - but, oddly, it didn't see a Face Unlock feature. However, determination is grounds the Pro exemplary could inactive get it via an upcoming bundle update.

As archetypal spotted by 9to5Google, Android 12L's root codification includes references to a look designation diagnostic connected the Tensor-powered smartphone. The codification strings specifically notation the Pixel 6 Pro's quality to power betwixt look unlock and fingerprint designation successful bid to unlock.

Currently, lone the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL enactment Face Unlock arsenic a signifier of biometric authentication. But they don't travel with fingerprint scanners. 

The Android 12L root codification suggests look authentication is being considered arsenic an experimental diagnostic for the Pixel 6 Pro lone - not the Pixel 6.

That's confusing - particularly considering the Pixel 6 Pro has nary known peculiar hardware implicit the Pixel 6 for enhanced facial recognition. In fact, the lone quality betwixt the 2 smartphones' front-facing sensors is an improved selfie camera with a wider tract of view.

It's unclear if Google volition really present Face Unlock with Android 12L erstwhile it rolls retired oregon alternatively with a Pixel Feature Drop bundle update.

Writing by Maggie Tillman. Originally published connected 16 December 2021.