Unlock phone options
- By Hadron
- Smartphones
- 4 Replies
No, it's always been one or the other, at least on any device I've owned (using android for 12 years, devices from HTC, Samsung and Google).I thought that was it, thanks.
I wonder why such an obvious fail-safe is not available. Pins are stored securely on the phone and I believe this kind of arrangement was available on earlier phones and tablets.
I guess "obvious" is subjective. The reason for the fallback with the fingerprint is that it's inherently less reliable (fingers may be dirty, wet, might no longer have prints because you got cyanoacrylate glue on them, etc) and less secure. The latter is the main reason, so when you use the fingerprint it will every now and then ask for your PIN/pattern/password in order to confirm your identity (you also need this to change security settings - fingerprint isn't accepted for that). Neither of those applies to the other methods (both require the same touchscreen, so if one doesn't work the other isn't likely to), so there's no great advantage to allowing both.