OnePlus 6 Face Unlock Bypassed By A Printed Photo

The OnePlus 6 was launched in India on May 17th at a starting price of Rs 34999. While the smartphone looks and feels very different from the OnePlus 5T, it has retained a few important features from its predecessor. One such feature is Face Unlock, which has become so famous that OnePlus has rolled out the feature to OnePlus 3, 3T and OnePlus 5 as well. While it is fast and convenient, it is not that safe and a new video on Twitter just proved that.

A Twitter user @rikvduijn posted a video of his OnePlus 6 being unlocked by a printed photo of his face. It is also been reported that this will work with a black-and-white printed photo as well. As seen in the video, the photo is not even placed properly on the face and the phone’s Face Unlock is bypassed.

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At the time of the OnePlus 5T launch, the company conceded that Face Unlock is not the most secure way of authentication. Since the OnePlus 5T had a rear-facing fingerprint sensor, the company wanted its users to have a more convenient way of unlocking their device hence, Face Unlock was introduced. Since this purely software based, OnePlus was able to roll out the feature to other devices as well. In its statement to PhoneArena, the company reiterates that:

We designed Face Unlock around convenience, and while we took corresponding measures to optimise its security we always recommended you use a password/PIN/fingerprint for security. For this reason Face Unlock is not enabled for any secure apps such as banking or payments. We’re constantly working to improve all of our technology, including Face Unlock.

Must Read: OnePlus 6T To Follow OnePlus 6 In Q4 2018

Many people compared OnePlus’ Face Unlock with Face ID. The main reason Face ID is relatively slower is because it is hardware-based and is much more secure (since it has replaced Touch ID) than the Face Unlock. As OnePlus has suggested in its statement, OnePlus 3/3T/5/5T/6 users should always use a PIN or a password or fingerprint sensor of security.