Next year’s iPhone could be the first with an under-screen fingerprint scanner. Apple is reportedly meeting next week with a supplier for the components necessary to build Touch ID into the display of the 2020 iOS model.
A “high-level visit” is scheduled for next week between Apple and GIS, a Foxconn subsidiary, according to the Economic Daily News. They’ll allegedly discuss embedding an ultrasonic fingerprint scanner into a future iPhone. This is the same technology used in last year’s Samsung Galaxy S10 and Note 10, with limited success. But the tech has been improving since then.
The iPhone maker reportedly already talked with other companies about their fingerprint-recognition systems. And Apple may have even created its own system.
Touch ID vs. Face ID
Touch ID was a highlight of iPhone for years, back when the fingerprint-recognition system was embedded into the Home button. But Apple dropped that button in the iPhone X, and went with Face ID instead.
The scanners needed for facial recognition take up less room on the front of the iPhone than fingerprint scanners, but an in-screen version of Touch ID would take up no room. That would allow Apple to remove or eliminate the current screen cutout — AKA the Notch.
There have been persistent rumors that Apple is planning this move, so it might be considered a real possibility.
