If you’re a Windows 10 Mobile user, your next phone could be a lot more secure than your current one. Microsoft is planning to add fingerprint scanning support to the operating system, allowing you to quickly and easily login to your phone with just your finger.
Windows 10 Mobile already supports biometric authentication, such as through retina detection, a feature available in the Lumia 950 and 950 XL. However, fingerprint scanning is a feature that has been sorely missed.
Microsoft revealed its plans for adding fingerprint scanner support to a select few during the Microsoft Hardware Engineering Community planning event, which took place in March. It then revealed the slides from that event today, allowing the public to find out about the plans.
Of course, in order to use fingerprint scanning in Windows 10 Mobile you’ll need a fingerprint scanner on your phone, so you won’t just suddenly get fingerprint scanning through a software update. Thankfully it seems as though there are already devices in the works with fingerprint scanning — the HP Elite X3, for example. According to HP, the Elite X3 will offer “dual biometrics,” or support for retina detection and fingerprint scanning.
Biometric authentication has grown a lot in popularity over the past few years, especially with the likes of Apple including fingerprint scanners in the iPhone. Microsoft has been implementing support for various biometric authentication features through Windows Hello, which is the company’s fancy name for its biometric authentication features. While facial recognition and retina scanning are cool features, with current technology, it seems as though fingerprint scanning is simply more efficient than other methods.
It’s not clear exactly when fingerprint scanning will be available in Windows 10 Mobile apart from “this summer.” In other words, many next-gen Windows phones should have the feature, or at least support for it, whether manufacturers decide to implement fingerprint scanners or not.
