As per a new report by Android Authority, Huawei has filed a patent for the fullscreen fingerprint unlock feature. With the help of this technology, smartphone users can tap anywhere on their device’s screen to unlock the phone.
Notably, the patent for this new fullscreen fingerprint technology has been filed in six international markets. These markets include China, Japan, Korea, Europe, US, and India.
Moreover, Huawei wants to bring its future phones equipped with this technology in the near future.
At present, we have to tap a specific area on our device’s screen to unlock the phone. However, this holy grail might change the way fingerprint authentication works.
In the report, Huawei has outlined some of the potential use-cases of this technology
The report also outlines some use-cases of this patented technology. Huawei reports that this feature can be used to unlock individual apps. Now you might be wondering what’s new in this, as this feature is available via third-party apps.
Apparently, this new technology will allow the user to unlock the phone and the app in one go, rather than having to unlock the phone, then tap on the app icon and finally unlock the app via the fingerprint scanner.
Huawei further disclosed that this new fullscreen fingerprint technology will allow the users to respond to text messages without the need of unlocking the phone.
Well, if things go as per plans, this could streamline the lock screen interactions on smartphones. Because simply tapping the widget or the notification will unlock the device, as the entire screen is now a fingerprint scanner.
Won’t this Huawei fullscreen fingerprint technology drain battery faster?
Another burning question is that if the entire screen is now a fingerprint scanner, won’t it affect the device’s battery life? In response to this, Huawei adds that users will have the option to activate sensors in a chosen area of the screen.
This will deactivate the sensors in other parts of the screen thus, conserving battery. This is not the first time that full-screen fingerprint scanning technology is making headlines.
Vivo, which also happens to be the first to introduce under-display fingerprint scanning technology, developed a concept phone Vivo Apex 2019 using the same full-screen fingerprint tech.
However, the phone could not make it to the commercial market. But Huawei seems positive in bringing products powered with a full-screen fingerprint reader.
Note that only a patent has been filed for this Huawei fullscreen fingerprint technology and we are far from having an actual product in the foreseeable future. We will keep you posted about any further developments in this regard.