Oliver Haslam·

iPhone X Face ID Faces Off Against Identical Twins And A Shaved Beard [Video]

With iPhone X‘s early reviews, hands-on videos and thought pieces now starting to pop up online, we are starting to see what the smartphone is capable of when left in the hands of normal people, far from the protective comfort blanket of an Apple employee.

One of the questions many of us had around Face ID, the iPhone X’s flashy new authentication system, is whether it can be fooled by identical twins. Apple already said that such a situation may prove troublesome, but the proof of the pudding is always in the eating, as they say. Now, Business Insider has put Face ID to the test by getting it into the hands of identical twins to see how Face ID fared.

The result is actually quite surprising. In a video published by the outlet, we can see the identical twins both putting Face ID through its paces. The outcome is that no, at least based on this testing, an identical twin should not be able to access a phone owned by the other without knowing their passcode. This will, no doubt, depend on a number of factors and we suspect that not all identical twins will find that they have the same results as Business Insider, but it’s an interesting outcome nevertheless. We expected quite the opposite, we know that much.

Another scenario that could be forgiven for confusing Face ID is one that some men may run into relatively regularly. While Apple has said that a man growing a beard will not cause an issue with authentication – growing a beard takes time and is gradual, Face ID continues to learn throughout – what happens if you have a beard and then shave it off in one fell swoop? Business Insider thought of that one too.

In this instance, things are not quite so clear cut. In the testing on-video, it seems the results were mixed, with Face ID able to adapt to the change and authenticate it after a couple failed attempts. You can watch both videos below.

(Source: Business Insider [1], [2])

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