Nov. 1 All Biometric Authentication Must Include Face Unlock

[thunderup]

Nine Email just updated with face unlock support. Works great.

 

[PaulQ]

Nine Email just updated with face unlock support. Works great.

Is it the security you can manually apply on your own to protect your account? Or the kind an exchange server can require you to have?

My employer requires either app or device-level security for me to access the exchange server. I did app-level for a little while then entering my PIN every time I opened my email became annoying. I switched to device-level, but that gives my employer device manager level access to my phone (to erase it).

I'd like to go back to app-level if it works with face unlock. In order to switch, I have to wipe my account from my phone and set it all up again - that's why I ask. Hoping this replaces a PIN.

Any of that sound familiar?

 

[thunderup]

Is it the security you can manually apply on your own to protect your account? Or the kind an exchange server can require you to have?

My employer requires either app or device-level security for me to access the exchange server. I did app-level for a little while then entering my PIN every time I opened my email became annoying. I switched to device-level, but that gives my employer device manager level access to my phone (to erase it).

I'd like to go back to app-level if it works with face unlock. In order to switch, I have to wipe my account from my phone and set it all up again - that's why I ask. Hoping this replaces a PIN.

Any of that sound familiar?

Yes, very familiar. That's exactly what I'm doing. I run my corporate exchange account through Nine so it only applies the security policies to the app, not the whole phone. Face unlock is working great with this setup. And yeah, I agree, having to type my pin these last several weeks to access the app has been annoying.


Edit to add - I may not have been totally clear. To answer your question, yes, you can safely go back to app-level. Face unlock replaces pin.

 

[N4Newbie]

Nine Email just updated with face unlock support. Works great.

That's awesome!

Now, where are all the other developers?

 

[dmxjago]

I think you're mixing up Google's hardware and software decisions. Android IS still about options - and in this case, about adding the option for users for face unlock which provides more options, not less. FPS support isn't in any way being removed from Android, though the specific OEM hardware of the Pixel doesn't include it (much to my and many others' disappointment).

As to the developers, Google has always had a catalog of evolving rules and mandates concerning apps that developers must meet to allow publication on Play Store, so this is nothing new in that sense.

Well said!!

 

[VidJunky]

As to the developers, Google has always had a catalog of evolving rules and mandates concerning apps that developers must meet to allow publication on Play Store, so this is nothing new in that sense.

I've seen some of these in action, for example taking away apps ability to access your call log. Reverse Look-up and WhitePages apps were both forced to pull the feature or be pulled from the Play Store. But this, this feels like a far leap and a big push for a small market. Whomever said earlier in the comments that they can't see major institutions killing themselves to get this done is probably right. I totally understand how if one biometric wasn't available to someone they would be excited to see such a change. On the flip side though some devices won't be able to support it, like the S10 series that doesn't have retinal scan and can be fooled by photographs. This addition will give everyone a biometric choice but the way it's being touted feels kind of Apple-ish.

Oh and 225,000,001. I use EverNote too.

 

[Jeremy8000]

. On the flip side though some devices won't be able to support it, like the S10 series that doesn't have retinal scan and can be fooled by photographs. This addition will give everyone a biometric choice but the way it's being touted feels kind of Apple-ish.

I'm not sure how to read that as a bad thing - if a system is easily fooled it shouldn't be certified for establishing that level of authentication. In that sense, Apple got it right, and Google would have been irresponsible in requiring anything less.

If another Android OEM develops another similarly secure authentication method, I would expect Google to afford it the same access in time.

 

[VidJunky]

I'm not sure how to read that as a bad thing...

Giving everyone something when one thing doesn't work for everyone isn't a bad thing. I don't feel that way at all. I was just commenting on how heavy handed it feels, "You will do this or..." Or what really? I know this may sound like a horrible analogy, and I truly hope not to offend anyone, but it feels like when wheelchair accessible entrances where mandated. It was needed so people wouldn't be excluded and while many made the change, not everyone did. Here we are 27 years later and not everyone has. It'll be interesting to see how many hold out and for how long, or Google might take the Call Log approach and start kicking apps out.

 

[hub1]

Bank of America now supports face unlock on the pixel 4 and 4xl as of BofA app version 8.3.11

 

[jweimn]

Cox added support in the latest update

 

[ricflairwoo2]

225 million people use Evernote. So ya, nobody cares...

Lol. And I bet 225M use it everyday. Unlike the 168M adults with bank accounts or around that same number with credit card apps. You do the math.

 

[hpilot]

Lol. And I bet 225M use it everyday. Unlike the 168M adults with bank accounts or around that same number with credit card apps. You do the math.

Actually I do use it every day. I use my bank app about once a month. Is 225M > 168M? You do the math...