Apple has completely replaced the Touch ID authentication system with its brand new Face ID – facial recognition system. Over the holidays season, the iPhone X owners realized that their phone won’t allow them to authorize Family purchases using Face ID. Instead, the iPhone X users were forced to enter their Apple ID password to authorize the transactions. This indeed is a tedious and frustrating process as compared to authorization using Touch ID.
Update: Download iOS 11.3 IPSW
Apple presumably disallowed the use of Face ID for family purchases because the company believes that Face ID could fail to distinguish between parent and their children. However, considering the increasing numbers of frustrated iPhone X owners, Apple has made a small modification in iOS 11.3. It seems like, with iOS 11.3, the iPhone X owners will be able to approve transactions for family sharing using the Face ID feature.
While the company has made a very welcomed change in iOS 11.3, the feature should have been there right from the very beginning of iPhone X. This could have saved iPhone X customers a lot of frustration over this holidays season whenever they needed to approve a family purchase.
Do you have an iPhone X? Are you happy with Apple allowing the use of Face ID authentication for family transactions? The company is currently beta testing iOS 11.3 software update. Both the developers and public beta testers have access to the first beta seed. The final version of iOS 11.3 will be released in Spring 2018.