Apple Explains What Happened With 'Failed' Face ID Demo [Video]

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Posted September 14, 2017 at 6:42am by Shalom Levytam

Apple has explained what happened during its first demo of Face ID which appeared to have failed.

When Craig Federighi picked up the iPhone X to demo Face ID, it didn't unlock the device. He put the iPhone to sleep and retried but it still didn't work and he was asked to enter a passcode.

Yahoo's David Pogue was able reach Apple for an official explanation:

Tonight, I was able to contact Apple. After examining the logs of the demo iPhone X, they now know exactly what went down. Turns out my first theory in this story was wrong—but my first UPDATE theory above was correct: “People were handling the device for stage demo ahead of time,” says a rep, “and didn’t realize Face ID was trying to authenticate their face. After failing a number of times, because they weren’t Craig, the iPhone did what it was designed to do, which was to require his passcode.” In other words, “Face ID worked as it was designed to.”

It's pretty unfortunate that this happened during the world debut of the feature. Take a look at a clip of the moment below!

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Guest - September 16, 2017 at 4:47am

The second back up iPhone X did not have Face ID enabled so it looked to work flawlessly. Misdirection people, misdirection.

Guest - September 14, 2017 at 5:24pm

So this means that it will try to authenticate everyone's face before mine??

007 - September 14, 2017 at 4:04pm

Well that makes sense! Shouldn't everyone be glad that the product worked!? If multiple people were hands on with that device before he had it and it was scanning all their faces before it got to his and to make sure that it was him automatically used the two factor identification to open since multiple faces were recognized prior to the showing! The scanners always working so it connected to multiple identities and those were not the ones so by the time he used it it already was in the process to require a back up pin to make sure. Sounds like it works perfect to me

Joh - September 14, 2017 at 12:25pm

So it did unlock later without passcode? Isn't it supposed to constantly ask for passcode in that case?

stevenlacross - September 14, 2017 at 1:25pm

He switched to a different phone, a backup phone

Ismael Santos - September 14, 2017 at 10:03am

I don't know. Accidents happen. I still trust in Apple like I always do. Apple has been working on this for years. For me, Apple has the best products. Have a good day!

D4xM4Nx - September 14, 2017 at 8:56am

I like it when things during a showcase are real and unexpected, instead of staged 'Too good to be true' crap. This is a feature, and only managed to confirm my intention to get me an iPhone X once it's available.

FailedFaceID - September 14, 2017 at 8:52am

Good excuse, we all know apple trying hard to catch up with samsung. Samsung had face ID for at least 2 years now. Wireless charging samsung has this for years.

beks - September 14, 2017 at 9:28am

Yeah Samsung had it, but it was possible for a younger brother to unlock the older brother's device with his face. So please don't judge a technology by who had it first, judge by who has the perfection. We still have to wait and compare the technology from both Samsung and Apple. Then we can say which one is better and more secure, what in my opinion is more important than who had it first.

AppleFaceIDFailed - September 14, 2017 at 12:28pm

Where as apple....Yep won't open and Yep can't be tricked even when being presented on stage still can't be opened.

Stevenk - September 14, 2017 at 2:07pm

Yeah well now don't give me that mate. I have tried to unlock my brother's phone and he had tried to do mine. We both have Galaxy S8. It did not work. And just FYI, we are fraternal twins and we resemble each other looks-wise as much as two brothers would(except maybe identical twins). It's a whole different story if it is identical twins. Samsung cannot fool identical twins with its face unlock technology and neither can apple(Apple accepted that incidentally during the iPhone unveiling). Don't just mislead us because you are a die hard apple fan boy.

007 - September 14, 2017 at 3:57pm

That's why I always say quality over quantity! Samsung may have all these devices with wireless charging lets atleast check out apples and see how it compares since usually they always have the top quality products.

PerpetuallyBlue - September 14, 2017 at 5:06pm

I know people with those Samsung things and it's not the same. I'm glad Apple finally perfected the face ID technology. I'm sure they'll improve on it even more. Plus, the security of this is superior to anything Samsung has to offer. Admittedly Samsung has some pretty good hardware but leave the software and improvements to Apple. It's what they make best and this face ID is a perfect example of such.

SP - September 14, 2017 at 6:48am

FaceID required a passcode after unsuccessful attempts, as designed. The fact that it didn't work two times while onstage is telling. I'll wait until it gets version 2.0 before paying $1000 on a potentially frustrating experience.