One thing to know about the Pixel 7’s face unlock feature is that there’s no dedicated sensor for it. There’s no iris scanner or Time-of-Flight sensor like we saw on other devices. It’s just using the phone’s selfie camera. Google uses the same AI algorithms present in Google photos for the face unlock feature. So, the same technology that recognizes your face in your photos is the same technology unlocking your phone. Another thing to note is that you can only use face unlock to unlock your phone. This means that other apps that use biometric authentication like banking apps will still require your fingerprint.
Using face unlock on the Pixel 7 causes Google Pay transactions to be declined
This was discovered by 9To5Google’s Max Weinbach. When using his phone to make Google Pay transactions, he would use his face to authenticate it. Then, he would see that the transaction unexpectedly declined. This seems like a bug, but in fact, it’s not. Google, along with Mishaal Rahman and Dylan Rossel, confirmed what the issue was. The company classifies face unlock as a Class 1 biometric unlock method. This means that it’s not cleared for unlocking certain app functions. This is why you can’t use it to open your banking app. Google still sees fingerprint scanning as a more secure means of biometric authentication. This is why your fingerprint is required to make Google pay transactions. One issue is the fact that Google does this with no explanation. When you make a payment using your face, the transaction simply declines, and you’re left with no feedback as to why. All you know is that the transaction was declined. This whole thing could be avoided if Google would simply give you a pop-up message. Either that, or it could just block you from making the transaction until you authenticate with your fingerprint. Hopefully, Google does come up with an update to fix this issue. At this point, it just seems like a bug. And, any sort of bug with the Pixel 7 will bring back horrible memories of the Pixel 6’s launch. So, we want to avoid that by all means.
