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Touch ID is an electronic fingerprint recognition feature designed and released by
Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, California, in Silicon Valley. It is best known for its consumer electronics, software, and services. Founded in 1976 as Apple Comput ...


History

In 2012, Apple acquired AuthenTec, a company focused on fingerprint-reading and identification management software, for $356 million. The acquisition led commentators to expect a fingerprint reading feature. Following leaks and speculation in early September the next year, the iPhone 5s was unveiled on September 10, 2013, and was the first phone on a major US carrier to feature the technology. Apple's
Vice President A vice president or vice-president, also director in British English, is an officer in government or business who is below the president (chief executive officer) in rank. It can also refer to executive vice presidents, signifying that the vi ...
of Marketing,
Phil Schiller Philip W. Schiller (born June 8, 1960) is an American businessman, spokesperson, and an Apple Fellow at Apple Inc. He is a prominent figure in Apple's keynotes and has been a member of the company's executive team since Steve Jobs returned to Ap ...
, announced the feature at Apple's iPhone media event and spent several minutes (the major portion of the conference) discussing the feature. Wells Fargo analyst Maynard Um predicted on September 4, 2013, that a fingerprint sensor in the iPhone 5s would help
mobile commerce The term mobile commerce was originally coined in 1997 by Kevin Duffey at the launch of the Global Mobile Commerce Forum, to mean "the delivery of electronic commerce capabilities directly into the consumer’s hand, anywhere, via wireless techno ...
and boost adoption in the corporate environment. Um said,
"As consumers increasingly rely on mobile devices to transact and store personal data, a reliable device-side authentication solution may become a necessity,"
With the unveiling of the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus at a keynote event on September 9, 2014, Touch ID was expanded from being used to unlock the device and authenticating App Store purchases to also authenticating Apple Pay. The iPhone 6s incorporates a second-generation Touch ID sensor that is up to twice as fast as the first-generation sensor found in the 5s, 6, and SE (1st generation) phones. As of August 2022, the iPhone 6s, 6s Plus, 7, 7 Plus, 8, 8 Plus, SE (2nd generation), SE (3rd generation), 2016 and later MacBook Pro, 2018 and later
MacBook Air The MacBook Air is a line of Mac (computer), Mac laptop computers developed and manufactured by Apple Inc., Apple since 2008. It features a thin, light structure in a machining, machined aluminum case and currently either a 13-inch or 15-inch ...
,
iPad Pro (2nd generation) The second generation of iPad Pro is a line of iPad tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc. The iPads, with 12.9 inch and 10.5 inch screens, were both announced on June 5, 2017. Both models are compatible with the first ...
and later,
iPad Air (3rd generation) The iPad Air (3rd generation) (colloquially referred to as iPad Air 3) is a tablet computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Apple Inc. is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Cupertino, C ...
and later, and
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or later are the Apple devices which use the second generation sensor. The new Touch ID unlocks almost instantly and posed an issue as it unlocks too fast to read notifications on the lock screen. This is remedied with the
iOS 10 iOS 10 is the iOS version history, tenth major release of the iOS mobile operating system developed by Apple Inc., being the successor to iOS 9. It was announced at the company's Worldwide Developers Conference on June 13, 2016, and was release ...
update in which a user must press the home button to have the home screen appear. It, however, can be changed in iOS settings so that users can go directly to the home screen after resting their finger on the sensor, similar to previous versions of iOS. Solely placing a finger on the sensor will only unlock the iPhone unless said setting is enabled, and no notifications are currently being displayed on the lock screen. Touch ID was retained on
iPhone 8 The iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus are smartphones developed and marketed by Apple Inc. They are the eleventh generation of the iPhone. The iPhone 8 was released on September 22, 2017, succeeding the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, respectively. T ...
, 2nd generation iPhone SE, 3rd generation iPhone SE, and the base model iPads, while all other iPhones since the
iPhone X The iPhone X (Roman numerals, Roman numeral "X" pronounced "ten") is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is part of the List of iPhone models, 11th generation of the iPhone. Available for pre-order from September 26, 2 ...
in 2017, and the higher-end
iPad Pro The iPad Pro is a series of tablet computers, positioned as the premium line of Apple Inc., Apple's iPad brand. It runs iPadOS, a tablet-optimized Fork (software development), fork of the iOS operating system. Early models were distinguished f ...
have adopted
Face ID Face ID is a Biometrics, biometric authentication facial recognition system, facial-recognition system designed and developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPad Pro. The system can be used for unlocking a device, making Apple Pay, payments, ac ...
recognition. Several iPads that do not have Face ID, such as the iPad Air (4th-generation and onwards), iPad Mini (6th-generation and onwards), and the iPad (10th-generation and onwards), feature a new sleep/wake button with an integrated Touch ID sensor. In 2020, 2021 and 2022, Apple unveiled a new Magic Keyboard with optional Touch ID for its line of
iMac The iMac is a series of all-in-one computers from Apple Inc., sold as part of the company's Mac (computer), Mac family of computers. First introduced in 1998, it has remained a primary part of Apple's consumer desktop offerings since and evol ...
s,
Mac Studio The Mac Studio is a small form factor (desktop and motherboard), small-form-factor workstation computer developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is one of four desktop computers in the Mac (computer), Mac lineup, sitting above the consumer-range M ...
s, and Mac minis, and also the MacBook Pro. On February 19, 2025, following the announcement of the iPhone 16e (served as the low-entry model of the iPhone 16 series) and discontinuation of its spiritual predecessor iPhone SE (3rd generation), all the iPhone models with Touch ID were consequently discontinued.


Usage

It allows users to unlock devices, make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores (
App Store An app store, also called an app marketplace or app catalog, is a type of digital distribution platform for computer software called applications, often in a mobile context. Apps provide a specific set of functions which, by definition, do not i ...
, iTunes Store, and
Apple Books Store Apple Books (known as iBooks prior to iOS 12 and macOS 10.14 Mojave) is an e-book reading and store application by Apple Inc. for its iOS, iPadOS and macOS operating systems and List of iOS devices, devices. It was announced, under the name iBo ...
), and authenticate
Apple Pay Apple Pay is a mobile payment service by Apple Inc. that allows users to make payments in person, in iOS apps, and on the web. Supported on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad, Mac, and Vision Pro, Apple Pay digitizes and can replace a credit or debi ...
online or in apps. It can also be used to lock and unlock password-protected
notes Note, notes, or NOTE may refer to: Music and entertainment * Musical note, a pitched sound (or a symbol for a sound) in music * ''Notes'' (album), a 1987 album by Paul Bley and Paul Motian * ''Notes'', a common (yet unofficial) shortened versi ...
on iPhone and iPad. Touch ID was first introduced in
iPhone The iPhone is a line of smartphones developed and marketed by Apple that run iOS, the company's own mobile operating system. The first-generation iPhone was announced by then–Apple CEO and co-founder Steve Jobs on January 9, 2007, at ...
s with the iPhone 5s in 2013. In 2015, Apple introduced a faster second-generation Touch ID in the iPhone 6s; a year later in 2016, it made its laptop debut in the
MacBook Pro The MacBook Pro is a line of Mac laptop computers developed and manufactured by Apple. Introduced in 2006, it is the high-end sibling of the MacBook family, sitting above the ultra-portable MacBook Air and previously the low-end MacBook li ...
integrated on the right side of the Touch Bar. Touch ID has been used on all
iPad The iPad is a brand of tablet computers developed and marketed by Apple Inc., Apple that run the company's mobile operating systems iOS and later iPadOS. The IPad (1st generation), first-generation iPad was introduced on January 27, 2010. ...
s since the iPad Air 2 was introduced in 2014. In MacBooks, each user account can have up to three fingerprints, and a total of five fingerprints across the system. Fingerprint information is stored locally in a secure enclave on the Apple A7 and later chips, not in the
cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...
, a design choice intended to secure fingerprint information from users or malicious attackers.


Generations


First generation


Second generation


Third generation


Hardware

Touch ID is built into the home (top) button, which is built of
laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
-cut sapphire crystal, and does not scratch easily (scratching would prevent Touch ID from working). It features a stainless steel detection ring to detect the user's finger without pressing it. There is no longer a rounded square icon in the home button, nor is it concave. The sensor uses capacitive touch to detect the user's fingerprint. The sensor has a thickness of 170 
μm The micrometre (Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a unit of length in the International System ...
, with 500 pixels per inch resolution. The user's finger can be oriented in any direction and it will still be read. Apple says it can read sub-epidermal skin layers, and it will be easy to set up and will improve with every use. The sensor passes a small current through one's finger to create a "fingerprint map" of the user's dermis. Up to 5 fingerprint maps can be stored in the Secure Enclave.


Security and privacy

Touch ID can be bypassed using passcodes set up by the user. Fingerprint data is stored on the secure enclave inside the Apple A7 and later processors of iOS devices, the T1 and T2 on Intel Macs, and the M1 and later on Macs with Apple Silicon and recent iPads featuring M-series processors. This data is not on Apple servers, nor on iCloud, and is not accessible by Apple or any third parties. From the Efficient Texture Comparison patent covering Apple's Touch ID technology:
In order to overcome potential security drawbacks, Apple's invention includes a process of collapsing the full maps into a sort of
checksum A checksum is a small-sized block of data derived from another block of digital data for the purpose of detecting errors that may have been introduced during its transmission or storage. By themselves, checksums are often used to verify dat ...
, hash function, or
histogram A histogram is a visual representation of the frequency distribution, distribution of quantitative data. To construct a histogram, the first step is to Data binning, "bin" (or "bucket") the range of values— divide the entire range of values in ...
. For example, each encrypted ridge map template can have some lower resolution pattern computed and associated with the ridge map. One exemplary pattern could be a histogram of, e.g., the most common angles (e.g., a 2 dimensional (2D) array of common angles). The exemplary pattern could include in each slot an average value over a respective vector of the map. The exemplary pattern could include in each slot a sum of the values over a respective vector of the map. The exemplary pattern could include the smallest or largest value within a respective vector of the map or could be a difference between a largest and a smallest value within the respective vector of the map. Numerous other exemplary embodiments are also possible, and any other exemplary pattern calculation can be used, where the exemplary pattern includes enough associated information to narrow the candidate list, while omitting enough associated information that the unsecured pattern cannot or cannot easily be reverse engineered into a matching texture.
If the user's phone has been rebooted, has not been unlocked for 48 hours, has its SIM card removed or has Emergency SOS activated, only the passcode a user has created, not their fingerprint, can be used to unlock the device or during other specific use cases. In September 2013, the German
Chaos Computer Club The Chaos Computer Club (CCC) is Europe's largest association of Hacker (computer security), hackers with 7,700 registered members. Founded in 1981, the association is incorporated as an ''eingetragener Verein'' in Germany, with local chapters ...
announced that it had bypassed Apple's Touch ID security. A spokesman for the group stated:
"We hope that this finally puts to rest the illusions people have about fingerprint biometrics. It is plain pity to use something that you can't change and that you leave everywhere every day as a security token."
Similar results have been achieved by using PVA Glue to take a cast of the finger. Others have also used Chaos Computer Club's method but concluded that it is not an easy process in either time or effort, given that the user has to use a high resolution photocopy of a complete fingerprint, special chemicals, and expensive equipment and because the spoofing process takes some time to achieve.


Impact

In a 2013 ''
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'' magazine opinion piece, technology columnist
Kevin Roose Kevin Roose is an American author and journalist. He is the author of three books, and is a technology columnist and podcast host for ''The New York Times''. He wrote a book about Liberty University, an evangelical Christian university known for ...
argued that consumers are generally not interested in fingerprint recognition, preferring to use passcodes instead. Traditionally, he wrote, only businesspeople used biometric recognition, although they believe Touch ID may help bring fingerprint recognition to the masses. Roose stated the feature will also allow application developers to experiment, should Apple open up access to Touch ID later on (which they have done), but that those wary of surveillance agencies such as the US
National Security Agency The National Security Agency (NSA) is an intelligence agency of the United States Department of Defense, under the authority of the director of national intelligence (DNI). The NSA is responsible for global monitoring, collection, and proces ...
may still choose not to use Touch ID. Roose also noted that fingerprint technology still has some issues, such as the potential to be hacked, or of the device's not recognizing the fingerprint (for example, when the finger has been injured). Adrian Kingsley-Hughes, writing for ZDNet, said Touch ID could be useful in
bring your own device Bring your own device (BYOD ) (also called bring your own technology (BYOT), bring your own phone (BYOP), and bring your own personal computer (BYOPC)) refers to being allowed to use one's personally owned device, rather than being required to use ...
situations. He said the biometric protection adds another layer of security, removing the ability of people to look over others' shoulders and read their passcode/password. He added that Touch ID would prevent children from racking up thousands of dollars in unwanted purchases when using iPhones owned by adults. He observed that Touch ID was Apple's response to the large number of iPhone crimes, and that the new feature would deter would-be iPhone thieves. Moreover, he notes that the feature is one of the few that distinguish the iPhone 5S from the 5C. Roose also stated the feature is intended to deter theft. However, Brent Kennedy, a vulnerability analyst at the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team, expressed concern that Touch ID could be hacked and suggested that people not rely on it right away. ''Forbes'' noted a history of fingerprints being spoofed in the past, and cautioned that the fingerprints on a stolen iPhone might be used to gain unauthorized access. However, the article did say that biometrics technology had improved since tests on spoofing fingerprint readers had been conducted. Kingsley-Hughes suggested the Touch ID as a form of
two-factor authentication Multi-factor authentication (MFA; two-factor authentication, or 2FA) is an electronic authentication method in which a user is granted access to a website or Application software, application only after successfully presenting two or more distin ...
, combining something one ''knows'' (the password) with "something you are" (the fingerprint). ''Forbes'' said that, if two-factor authentication is available, it will be an overall improvement for security. ''Forbes'' columnist Andy Greenberg said the fact that fingerprint data was stored on the local device and not in a centralized database was a win for security.


See also

*
Face ID Face ID is a Biometrics, biometric authentication facial recognition system, facial-recognition system designed and developed by Apple Inc. for the iPhone and iPad Pro. The system can be used for unlocking a device, making Apple Pay, payments, ac ...


References


External links

* – official site * – official site * – official site {{iOS Authentication methods Fingerprints IOS