A New Patent Suggests Apple Could One Day Bring Touch ID to the Apple Watch

Among the many reason to own an Apple Watch is the number of times it can save you from having to overstretch your iPhone out of your sack , and anew patent of late granted to Applecould one day see yet another useful iPhone feature brought to the wearable : Touch ID .

Although Face ID is often an casual way of life to unlock a smart gadget , many users still pine for Touch ID , which bring home the bacon instantaneous access to an iPhone or iPad while it was sitting on a desk or board , without you having to pick it up and look flat into its front - face cameras . When Apple started to phase out the home button ( where the fingerprint detector was located ) from its various equipment , Touch ID also started to go away . Although , for equipment like the 4th genesis iPad Air and the 6th generation iPad Mini , which lacked Face ID cameras , Apple integrated a fingerprint sensor into the whorl button rather . Now , aseries of unexampled patentsreveals that Apple might be considering a similar approach for the Apple Watch , which lack a photographic camera .

It ’s crucial to remember that every fresh letters patent awarded to a company does n’t needs signify it ’s a feature or a product specify for consumer . Most of the clock time , companies patent an idea just in case it could be useful in the future , or as a way to prevent its competition from play a similar feature to their own Cartesian product down the air . It ’s a mussy organisation that ’s often abused , but it occasionally helps give brainwave into a caller ’s product roadmap , peculiarly for secretive companionship like Apple , and adding Touch ID to the Apple Watch seems like it would be authentically utile as a real life innovation .

Photo: Gizmodo

According to the latterly granted patent for an “ Electronic gadget having sealed clit biometric sensing system , ” the fingerprint sensing element would be integrate into the Apple Watch ’s side release , which would be potentially increase in size and slightly gravel out of the wearable , similar to how the digital crown dial does now . As with the ringlet button on several iPad models , you would simply need to touch a finger against the button to authenticate a user through their fingermark , while the button could still be physically pressed for other functions , like quickly access Apple Pay .

Apple Watch user can now utilize Apple Pay to well give for purchase by tap their wearable to a requital terminal , but it want a passcode that has to be enter whenever the watch is taken off and put back on . The estimation is that if an Apple Watch with Apple Pay participating is stolen , it ca n’t be used for a disbursement fling without knowing the exploiter ’s passcode . But passcodes and word are annoying and easy to forget ; Touch ID on the Apple Watch would eliminate the need for them .

have-to doe with ID on the Apple Watch could even be integrated with its connected iPhone . If an iPhone drug user is struggling with Face ID when wearing sunglasses or when responsibly masking , they could potentially unlock their phone with a agile finger tap on their smartwatch instead . Unfortunately , even with all the rumors swirl of newApple Watch Series 8 features like fever detection , Touch ID coming to the wearable this presently — if ever — is a farseeing jibe .

Illustration: United States Patent and Trademark Office