Smoother face unlock coming to Samsung phones?

Been playing around with some early builds of what I think is One UI 7 (based on Android 15, naturally), and I stumbled across a subtle but interesting change in how face unlock is set up. Now, Samsung hasn’t officially announced anything about this yet, so take it with a grain of salt, but it seems like they’ve tweaked the scanning process.

In previous versions, you’d just hold your phone up, stare at the camera for a few seconds, and boom, you were registered. Simple enough. But in this new version, it’s a little different. It starts the same, scanning your face straight on. But then it prompts you to tilt your head up slightly and then back down. It’s almost like it’s trying to get a more three-dimensional map of your face.

I can’t show you a direct screen recording (Samsung locks that down for security reasons, which is understandable), but imagine tilting your head just a little, like you’re nodding a tiny “yes.” That’s the gist of it.

Now, I’m not expert, but this seems like it could improve the speed and accuracy of face recognition. Maybe it helps the phone better distinguish your features in different lighting conditions or from slightly different angles. I doubt it’s a major security overhaul, but it does feel like a more refined process.

The rest of the face recognition settings seem pretty much the same. You still have the option to add an “alternate appearance” (useful if you wear glasses or have significant changes in your appearance), require open eyes for unlocking, and boost screen brightness in low-light situations.

If you’re curious to explore these settings yourself (when the update eventually rolls out), you’ll find them in Settings under Security and Privacy, then Screen lock and biometrics.