Apple's Touch ID has had a nice run, but when the iPhone SE switches to what most people think will be an OLED display with Face ID, it will mark the end of this decade-old technology.
This last vestige of not only Apple’s circular fingerprint reader but also the iPhone’s once-iconic home button has nowhere to go and nowhere to hide. No other Apple device, mobile or otherwise, uses it. When that iPhone SE redesign arrives (though likely not as part of the Apple iPhone 16 event), Apple’s home button and Touch ID will slowly begin to fade into memory and then be buried with the rest of the long-forgotten classic tech.
When I published one of our stories about rumored changes coming to the upcoming iPhone SE, a former colleague claimed he couldn't live without Touch ID. I assured him it would survive, but I understood his devotion.
When Apple introduced Touch ID on the iPhone 5s in 2013, I praised it in my review: “Overall, Touch ID feels easy and secure. And speaking of security, your fingerprints aren't stored on Apple's end, but are encrypted locally at the hardware level. It's a smart move, and I applaud Apple for getting it right from the start.”
Touch ID was such a big and relatively new idea that it spawned unusual ideas and use cases. As tech journalists, we find ourselves answering questions like, “Can a severed finger access a stolen iPhone 5s?”
It turns out the answer is no. RF capacitor sensor technology would only work with a live finger. One might assume that in addition to checking for those tiny ridges, it could detect blood flow or a pulse beneath the skin.
But it gets better. Since most people didn't have fingerprint readers in their pockets, the arrival of Touch ID inspired people to try using the sensor on other parts of their body. No, not those body parts (as far as I know)However, there was a man in Japan who figured out how to record his nipple and then use it to unlock his iPhone 5s. Why? Your guess is as good as mine.
Letting go
Over time, Touch ID became as common as iPhones, and we didn't begin to consider the loss of this effective, touch-based biometric security feature until the arrival of Apple's iPhone X and Face ID in 2017.
As is typical for Apple, changes happen across Apple’s product lines in an evolutionary fashion, both for iPhones and iPads (the iPod Touch died with its home button without Touch ID intact). But, as with the transition from 30-pin charging ports to Lightning and now to USB-C, changes eventually affect all of Apple’s products and categories.
Anyone who thought the iPhone SE would somehow escape upgradeability, slipping through the hands of innovation like a greased banana, was kidding themselves. Change is inevitable in all things and a requirement for technology.
And yet, I still feel a pang of sadness at the impending end of what was once a symbol of all iPhone technology. The home button, which originally had a small square printed in the middle, was recognizable from a distance. It became a little less recognizable with Touch ID, which eventually swapped motion for haptic feedback and the square for glossy glass, later with a metal ring surrounding the Touch ID circle.
We might not have fallen in love with the iPhone and this little button if Apple hadn't done such a good job creating it. As I wrote in 2013, “Placing the fingerprint reader under the home button is a brilliant idea, made all the more so by the fact that the execution is nearly flawless.”
So we can only thank and blame Apple for our devotion to this dying invention. Face ID is probably smarter, faster, and more secure, but we'll never forget the home button and Touch ID, and we may miss them long after the next iPhone SE arrives.
