With iOS 16, Apple finally fixes Face ID’s glaring problem

Face ID is pretty sweet, we can mostly agree on that. But it’s had one glaring problem since it was introduced alongside iPhone X in 2017 — you need to hold your iPhone in portrait mode for it to work. But not anymore!

When Apple ships iOS 16 later this year we can expect to be able to use our iPhones in landscape mode and still take advantage of Face ID. Apple didn’t say anything about the feature during its WWDC22 opening keynote announcement of iOS 16, but it’s hidden midway down the list of features on Apple’s website.

Face ID works in landscape on supported iPhone models.

Short and sweet, right? Apple isn’t saying what those supported iPhone models are, but we can expect iPhone 13 to be good to go. You need an iPhone 12 or later to use Face ID while wearing a mask, so maybe those devices will be good to go here, too. Maybe? We shall see.

Apple’s initial developer beta is now available for download and a public beta release is penciled in for next month so it’s likely we’ll learn more about this change as people begin to test the feature for themselves. Face ID was already one of the best iPhone security features to date, but using it in some situations was a pain. Landscape support will change all of that and now we just need to wait for Apple to ship the update this fall.