✅ Pixel 4 Face ID support? (Biometric API) (UPDATE : 21/11/19)

Yeah that’s pretty much what I got from it so I would say it is on par with Apple’s FaceID for security and the closed eye “issue” isn’t really a problem for me.

1 Like

Would it be possible to defeat these face-locking features by 3D printing or making a maquette of the subject’s head?

asking for a friend?

:rofl: Ah, no. Asking as a skeptic of biometric locking. :sweat_smile:

I would guess so. Can’t imagine they check temperature or texture?

Hey @BorisKach, I have one request when you finally get to release the Biometric support - please can you use setConfirmationRequired(false), I don’t want to tap confirm every time I use the face unlock.

This site explains what I mean for anyone curious:

Apparently the Biometric Prompt API was released over a year before the Pixel 4 was. Why is this taking so long?

1 Like

This is mainly due to them needing to rewrite the encryption for the device and I’m sure there were more pressing changes to the app that needed to be completed first.

I am more than happy for Monzo to take their time and get it right the first time and they are not alone in the slow uptake. WhatsApp have only just released fingerprint unlock for Android and they used the old API so face unlock will not work either.

How does encryption relate to adopting a new API? Is a particular encryption standard a requirement for using the API?

No, they’re not having to ‘rewrite the encryption for the device’, that sentence is meaningless.

There was an old way of accessing fingerprints, which is what most apps used. Apps would have to write their own UI to handle showing a prompt and waiting for a fingerprint.

With Android 9 a universal biometrics API was added to Android. It basically handles everything for the developer, no need to custom implement everything. It also hooks into whichever biometrics the device supports by default, the developer doesn’t have to manually add support from fingerprint, face, iris, etc.

Like most apps, Monzo was using the old method, since that’s all that existed at the time Monzo was made. When the new API was released last year, there wasn’t a pressing demand for it. Most apps ‘worked fine’ with their own proprietary implementations. Face unlocking as a secure method wasn’t a thing on other phones. It’s only now that apps are having to rewrite their authentication process to use the new API because phones like the Pixel 4 are being released, which absolutely require this new API, no way around it.

Honestly, apps should have hopped onto this earlier, it was inevitable that they’d have to switch at some point, but they’ve waited until it’s an actual issue before addressing it, which seems silly. Nonetheless, I’m happy Monzo are doing it, as most other banking apps haven’t and won’t for a while yet.

Oh, and to the Monzo Devs, please use setConfirmationRequirwe(false) please. Nobody wants to click the confirm button. Thanks.

1 Like

Seems like Google should have written a proper api a long time ago and then this wouldn’t be an issue. Biometrics are hardly new.

Face unlock didnt exist last year, its an Android 10 addition to the API this year.

https://9to5google.com/2019/10/31/google-android-biometric-api/ if you want more details on it all.

No, the biometrics API was added in Android 9, but it only supported fingerprint authentication. At the same time the old biometric API was deprecated.

The article you quoted says that Android 10 brought all biometric methods, as in the addition of face unlock and iris unlock. Since no phones existed for Android 9 that used eye/face this fortunately wasn’t an issue.

The improved biometrics API has been available since the 1st or 2nd beta of Android 9, around May 2018. Not Android 10.

Pixel 4 Face Unlock Update :raised_hands: :android:

Very happy to announce that Face Unlock for the Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL using the new Biometric Prompt API is now in the Staff Testing phase :partying_face:

We don’t yet have a timeline for when it’ll graduate to Monzo Labs for customers, because we want to test the absolute crap out of it. Testing isn’t straightforward - there’s still the possibility that many things could go wrong, and only when we’re confident that isn’t the case will we push forward. If any authentication stopped working anywhere in the app for customers that would cause us a bunch of problems!

Anyhoo, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here’s what Monzo Labs looks like on staff staging accounts :joy: :potato:

9 Likes

woah, hold off on all the technical terms there

:grin:

6 Likes

2 Likes

I want waffles

1 Like

Ok screw that BiometricPromptAPI… I want potato waffles now!

Alright alright… I want both!

3 Likes

Potato Waffle unlock confirmed.

Given that this has now appeared in Labs:

let’s talk about it in the labs thread.