Google makes Face Unlock official for Pixel 7 series; new fingerprint sensor is included too

During today’s Made by Google event, the company revealed that the Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro will feature Face Unlock. Google is also known to share new features with older Pixel models so those with the Pixel 6 Pro are hoping that this feature makes its way to last year’s premium model although that is not something that appears to be in the cards after today’s event. Google told us later today that it has nothing to share at this point.

Unlike the Pixel 4 series and the iPhone, the new Pixels do not include the sensors used for facial recognition on those phones. Google did say that it plans on using “advanced machine learning models” powered by the new Google Tensor 2 to implement Face Unlock for the new Pixel models. This would seem to eliminate the Pixel 6 Pro from receiving the feature although other alternative methods could still be in play.

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Google also told us that the under-display fingerprint sensor on the new phones is a big improvement over the biometric reader on the Pixel 6 line. The company said, “When compared to Pixel 6, Pixel 7 devices use a new generation of under-display fingerprint sensor with higher performance, including a 30% latency improvement, to help deliver a more seamless unlock experience.”