Paul Morris on November 22, 2017, 12:33 am

Here’s Yet Another iPhone X Face ID Hidden Feature That You Likely Don’t Know About

If you have recently tried to purchase Apple’s new flagship iPhone X smartphone, then you will have likely realized just how popular the hardware is on a global basis.

If you didn’t get one on launch day, then you are likely still waiting for Apple to replenish stock levels, which is partly due to the fact that the TrueDepth camera and Face ID functionality managed to take interest levels to an all-time high.

With that said, if you do happen to own an iPhone X, there is likely a hidden Face ID feature that you are yet to even realize exists. Apple uses advertising and its own internal marketing machine to present Face ID as a security feature that allows you to unlock your device and authenticate payments using nothing but a glance of your face.

Of course, very much like Touch ID, as a device owner, you need to go through a setup process to train the device to your own face and to store a 3D composite image of your appearance in the Secure Enclave of the phone. Once that’s been done, a quick glance will unlock the device, authenticate payments, and even let you cast your facial expressions onto a 3D animated poop emoji if that’s your thing.

However, you likely have yet to realize that Face ID is also linked to the stock Alarm function in the Clock app on the device, which makes use of a successful facial scan to soften the blow in the morning when an early-morning alarm goes off to get you up for work or your children’s school run. If you have the alarm set for a particular time, get woken up by the blaring sound of whatever tone you have chosen, but then simply give a reassuring glance at the device, iOS and Face ID will work in harmony with one another to soften the tone and turn the volume down to allow you to wake up more gracefully and in your own time. Of course, it needs to actually be your face, so you can’t pick up your partner’s device if that wakes you up, as it simply will not work.

This is another one of those small but very worthwhile refinements which show that Apple has a true focus on attention to detail and trying to give the best possible experience to hardware owners. It’s highly unlikely that anyone would have ever requested such a small feature, but it’s reassuring to know that Apple was ahead of the curve thinking outside of the box about these things.