Samsung Galaxy S10 Users Report of Easily Fooled Default Face Unlock Experience, but There's a Simple Fix

Samsung Galaxy S10 and Galaxy S10+ users are now reporting that the face unlock feature on their phones is not secure. It is able to unlock the phone with the help of selfies, selfie videos, and in some cases, even the registered user's sibling's face. Reportedly, the issue arises when a setting called 'faster recognition' is left turned on which reduces security and "increases the possibility of a video or image being incorrectly recognised as your face." Thankfully, there's an easy fix for this issue, and all you need to do is switch off the 'faster recognition' option in the Settings menu.

Several users have taken to Reddit, and even YouTuber Unbox Therapy has demoed this flaw on his channel. The thing is that 'Faster Recognition' toggle is switched on when you setup the phone by default, and this is the reason several users have experienced a poor face unlock experience, including an incident where a sibling could unlock the device with their own face.

Prominent app teardown expert Jane Manchun Wong says that she was able to unlock her brother's Samsung Galaxy S10+ with her face. She later tweeted that her brother had switched off face unlock altogether to prevent such security breaches in the future. However, the more logical solution, as spotted by Android Police first, is to toggle off 'Faster Recognition' rather than disabling face unlock.

We experienced the same not-secure experience with our Galaxy S10+ review unit initially and we were able to unlock the phone with a selfie photo and a selfie video as well. But once we toggled off 'Faster Recognition', the phone was unable to recognise any photos and videos, and only unlocked when the data-fed real face came in front of the phone. Faster Recognition enables 2D face unlock that is known to be not secure, and we recommend all users to toggle it off.

The Faster Recognition setting clearly comes with a disclaimer that reads, "it improves speed but reduces security increasing the possibility of a video or image being incorrectly recognised as your face." You can turn off this option by heading to Settings > Face Recognition >Faster Recognition.

Is Samsung Galaxy S10+ the best Android flagship overall? Are Samsung Galaxy Buds the best truly wireless headphones in India? We discussed these things on Orbital, our weekly technology podcast, which you can subscribe to via Apple Podcasts or RSS, download the episode, or just hit the play button below.