“…Bloomberg reports that Apple is actually planning to deliver in-display Touch ID to the iPhone next year, with the technology currently being tested by its overseas suppliers.”

A new report from Bloomberg is offering further evidence that Apple is indeed working on an in-display version of its Touch ID fingerprint scanning system.

Touch ID helped to catalyze the mobile biometrics revolution after it made its debut on the iPhone in 2013. But Apple shifted to user authentication based on facial recognition with 2017’s iPhone X, and eliminated the use of fingerprint scanning in last year’s iPhone models.

The full switch to Face ID freed up more space for the iPhone’s screen by eliminating the need for a home button, which had traditionally housed the Touch ID system. But over the past year, numerous iPhone rivals have launched fingerprint scanning systems that can operate within a device’s display, in some cases operating alongside facial recognition systems.

This has led to speculation that Apple will revive Touch ID in an in-display form. And this speculation received a certain degree of validation about a month ago when Ming-Chi Kuo, a renowned industry analyst with a track record of some success in Apple predictions, issued a report indicating that Apple will bring in-display Touch ID to iPhone models starting in 2021.

Now, citing anonymous “people familiar with the plans,” Bloomberg reports that Apple is actually planning to deliver in-display Touch ID to the iPhone next year, with the technology currently being tested by its overseas suppliers. Apple hasn’t yet solidified its ability to mass-produce the technology, according to one of Bloomberg’s sources; and it’s still possible that its implementation will be delayed to 2021’s crop of iPhones. But if all goes well, Touch ID will make its comeback in a year’s time.

In the meantime, Apple is expected to launch this year’s iterations of the iPhone next week, with analysts anticipating a more sophisticated Face ID system, and no fingerprint sensor.

Source: Bloomberg