Google should have included face unlock in the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro

Like I am prone to do, I’ve switched phones for the time being. This time around, it was a tough-to-pass-up deal on the OnePlus 10 Pro that was calling my name over at T-Mobile. While I still have and enjoy my Pixel 6, there’s something to be said about the gaming prowess of a phone with the latest Snapdragon processor built in. Regardless of the power housed in Google’s own Tensor SoC, more games are optimized for Qualcomm’s silicon at this stage of the game, so great graphics and buttery-smooth animations are mine once again in games like PUBG New State and Call of Duty Mobile.

I’ve now had the OnePlus 10 Pro for about a week, and I’ve become pretty comfortable once again with OnePlus’ take on Android 12. It is far more Android 11-feeling than Google’s Android 12 flavor and overall, I’m enjoying my time with this phone right now. But it isn’t just the speed, the design, or the lightweight version of Android that has me interested. It’s also how the phone can be unlocked.

Face unlock with just a front-facing camera

The fingerprint scanner under the glass is the same type of biometric sensor we get on the Pixel 6, albeit somehow faster with OnePlus’ iteration that simply responds faster. Overall, I still find optical fingerprint scanners to be generally clunky in practice most times, and for everything aside from logging into my bank account and other sensitive applications, I simply use the built-in face unlock that OnePlus has provided for years.

Setting it up is a snap and while it’s not as secure as Apple’s FaceID or Google’s own face unlock from the Pixel 4, it does just fine for unlocking your device. Again, for bank accounts or credit card apps, it isn’t even an option for logging in. That’s where passwords and fingerprints work much better. But for the run of the mill unlocking we all do on our phones countless times per day, face unlock via the front-facing camera is fast, simple and easy to use.

I even tried to fool it a few ways with images on screen, in print, and in video and the OnePlus 10 Pro is at least smart enough to realize that I need to be showcased in three dimensions before it even considers unlocking. Again, I know this isn’t as secure as Face ID, but I’m also not using this feature to lock down my most-sensitive materials.

Why isn’t this a thing for Pixel phones?

So, with this working so well on a OnePlus device, the question must be asked: why didn’t Google include basic face unlock on the latest Pixel phones? According to a report from 9to5 Google, they were planning on it at least for the Pixel 6 Pro and simply removed it prior to launch. With Google’s software prowess around image capture, I can’t imagine a company better positioned to provide a solid face unlock solution based on the camera alone. Clearly this is built into Android at this point, so why didn’t Google show everyone how well it can be done in their own phones?

According to the same report, it may still be in the cards in a future update, but there’s nothing for sure. Perhaps Google was trying to get face unlock in place with just the front-facing camera in a way that would be nearly as secure as Face ID. Once they tried and couldn’t quite nail it down, they pulled the feature and kept working on it internally. If they were simply going for something similar to what we get on OnePlus and Samsung phones, I don’t understand why they couldn’t have shipped it in the latest Pixel phones.

Either way, I think the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro would have benefited even from a simple form of face unlock. Having to constantly interact with the poor fingerprint scanner that is part of the Pixel 6 DNA is one of the glaring downfalls of using the device. It is slow, inconsistent and just a bad experience for most users. If face unlock was on the Pixel 6 at least in the capacity that it is on the OnePlus 10 Pro I’m now carrying, perhaps I wouldn’t have even noticed. But now, if I have to go back to the Pixel 6, I feel like it’s going to sting that much more.