How to use facial recognition with a mask

The masks have become a mandatory element since May 21, something that can mean a problem for mobile facial recognition, although there are tricks that allow you to use this system to try not to have incidents when you wear it.

This protection element must be worn in closed spaces and in outdoor areas when the safety distance cannot be guaranteed of 2 meters to avoid infecting us with the coronavirus. The truth is that in environments with a high population density there would be no problems, but in cities it is more complicated.

So far so good, but when the time comes to use the mobile, a large number of users will surely have activated facial recognition to unlock their terminalDue to its speed and comfort and with a mask on the face, this process is complicated.

It gets to such a point that your smartphone, in all probability, does not detect your face correctly and will not unlock when you have the mask onset, so a series of measures must be taken quickly so that this situation is not reached.

Face recognition on Android

First of all, you should know something important, you'd better temporarily disable facial recognition of your Android device if you use it as a method unlocking, with the mask it may not detect your face and that would mean that you would have to remove it.

If you want to protect your he alth and that of others, you should not remove your mask for anything except when you are at home and you wash your hands correctly, when away from home it should not be an option and this is when you should consider whether or not to use this mobile functionality.

In this case we recommend using the fingerprint reader or even the typical pattern or unlock code, it is safer and more efficient, so you can unlock the mobile and other apps like WhatsApp. But if you still want to continue using facial recognition with the mask, you can try following a simple trick and check if it works in your case, follow these steps:

1. Enter the security options of your Android phone, in our case they are in the passwords and security/facial unlock section.

1. Now all you have to do is enter “face unlock”.

1. Finally, click on "next" and the renewal process will begin with your face, in some moments you would have to remove the mask. In the process, the terminal will ask you to rotate your face several times to fine-tune the result, so at times you should put the mask on and at others take it off.

If you have noticed, facial recognition itself warns that you must have your face “clean” of elements for the result to be tuned and correct, which means that possibly with the mask on it will not work correctly for you.

Finally you should try the new modified face, so put on your mask at home and check that you can effectively unlock your mobile With it on without having to touch it at all, it is essential before going out, if it doesn't work, you know what to do, activate other unlocking methods.

Face recognition on iOS

If you have an iPhone you should follow the same procedure that we have explained to you, that is, analyze a new face with a mask on (something that would no longer work and that we will explain later) or simply use other methods such as the fingerprint reader, PIN code or another method.

In recent iPhone it is more complicated since they do not have fingerprint unlocking (iPhone X, iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, iPhone 11 Pro, iPhone 11 Pro Max) and the only possibility is to use a PIN code to unlock the phone, make payments using Apple Pay, etc.

Of all, if you want to try follow these steps:

1. Go to Settings/Face ID & Passcode. Next, tap “set up Face ID”, place your face in front of the front camera with the mask on, and tap “start”.

In any case, Apple has already thought about this and in iOS 13.5, an update that has recently arrived, Face ID is able to recognize if the person is wearing a maskor not on, so that, if it is worn, it directly asks the user for the unlock code.

This is very useful because it doesn't mean you should turn off Face ID on your iPhone as there may be times when you don't have a mask and you can continue unlocking your terminal as you have been doing so far, only that it is one more measure to protect yourself.

Is facial recognition useful?

This unlocking and payment method is very useful because it offers comfort and speed to the user, something that more and more mobiles include, but Right now, you have to put aside the benefits offered by facial recognition and focus on other more important things.

The answer would be that it is not useful to use facial recognition with a mask in the situation we are living now due to the coronavirus, in fact, It is possible that it does not work for you as we have already indicated, and it is also that Apple through its Face ID and thanks to the latest update, detects when you are wearing it and temporarily deactivates this method.

As the most important thing is to protect your own he alth and that of other people, removing your mask should not be an option when you are away from home and even less so now that they are mandatory in certain situations due to the coronavirus, as well It is best that you use other unlocking methods on your mobile and deactivate facial recognition.