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Android Q might introduce support for much more secure face recognition tech
Aug 12, 2025
Plenty of Android smartphones support some type of face unlock feature, but unfortunately not many of them are all that secure. Phones that rely solely on the front-facing camera to recognize a user’s profileare much more easily fooledthan more advanced setups, such as Apple’s Face ID technology. Apple’s Face ID combines the phone’s front-facing camera, ToF sensor, IR illuminator, and dot projector to offer more secure facial recognition for users. Those extra sensors can mean the difference between you unlocking your phone and someone else unlocking your phonewith a photo of you.
It appears Google’s next major version of Android will attempt to makefacial recognitionmuch more secure across the Android ecosystem.
Our friends atXDA Developershave been rooting around an early build ofAndroid Qand noticed dozens of strings relating to facial recognition built into the framework, SystemUI, and settings APKs. The lines of code specifically reference error messages that will display if a phone running Android Q does not have built-in facial recognition hardware.
If a phone does have the proper facial recognition hardware, users will be able to utilize the new tech to not only unlock their phones, but also authorize purchases and sign into apps. Users will still be able to set a password, PIN, or pattern as a backup authentication method if the face unlock feature fails.
It’s worth noting some Android phones, such as theHUAWEI Mate 20 Pro, have more secure face unlock setups than other phones. However, HUAWEI had to jump through extra hoops to make Android work with its hardware since there isn’t native support for it built into Android. It sounds like this will change going forward, allowing other Android phone makers to more easily build secure face recognition into their devices.
Now, this isn’t confirmation that the Pixel 4 will support this advanced face recognition tech, but it’s also notnotsaying that. There’s a good chance Google will announce it atGoogle I/O 2019, which takes place May 7-9, and later debut the technology when the next Pixels arrive in the later half of 2019.
Next:Android Q: The top features we know about so far
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