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You may want to unlock the iPhone 8 with your face, not finger

The iPhone 8's facial recognition is rumored to sense faces in millionths of a second -- faster than you can say "cheese."

Gordon Gottsegen CNET contributor
Gordon Gottsegen is a tech writer who has experience working at publications like Wired. He loves testing out new gadgets and complaining about them. He is the ghost of all failed Kickstarters.
Gordon Gottsegen
2 min read
Josh Miller/CNET

Using your face may be the best way to unlock the upcoming iPhone 8. The iPhone is reported to come with 3D sensors for facial recognition that can allegedly sense your face in millionths of a second, according to The Korea Herald.

In order to celebrate the original iPhone's 10th anniversary, Apple is rumored to be releasing a dramatically redesigned iPhone 8 (its exact name is TBA). If rumors are to be believed some of the features we can expect on the new iPhone include an edge-to-edge OLED display, wireless charging, and AR capabilities.

Facial recognition has also been a rumored feature for quite some time, and the rumor gained more weight after mention of the iPhone's facial recognition was spotted in Apple's HomePod firmware code.

Unlocking your phone with facial recognition has been possible with other phones like the Samsung Galaxy S8, but we have yet to see a similar feature on the iPhone. That may change soon according to an Apple patent from July, which shows facial recognition being used for anything from unlocking your iPhone to zooming in and out based off of how far away you are from the screen.

Unfortunately, fooling a phone that uses your face to unlock has been as easy as printing out a photograph, but the iPhone's tech is rumored to be more advanced than the S8's thanks to 3D sensors, according to The Korea Herald.

The report also claims that the iPhone 8 won't have an in-display fingerprint scanner, as previously speculated. Word on the street is that the iPhone 8 may ditch its home button to opt for a bezel-less display, so without a fingerprint sensor built into the home button or display the future of TouchID is up in the air. You may be able to use your face instead.

There's no official word on when Apple will announce its next batch of iPhones, but historically the company hosts its iPhone events in September. If that's the case we may hear more in the next few weeks.

Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment on this story.