While facial recognition is not as secure as a fingerprint scanner, it adds convenience for unlocking the phone at a glance. Samsung offers facial recognition biometrics on all Galaxy phones, and while it works most of the time, it doesn’t recognize the face often. Here’s how you can fix facial recognition not working on Galaxy phones.
Facial recognition is quite useful when you wear gloves or have wet hands. Instead of going through a failed fingerprint authentication, you can unlock your Galaxy phone with a glance at the lock screen.
1. Remove facial data and add it again
If you did not follow the on-screen instructions during setup, you may have errors unlocking your phone via facial recognition. You need to remove the current facial data and add it again from Settings. Here’s how to do it on your Samsung Galaxy phone.
Step 1: Swipe up and open the app drawer menu.
Step 2: Find the Settings app with a gear icon and tap it.
Step 3: From Settings, go to Biometrics & Security.
Step 4: Tap Facial Recognition and your phone will prompt you for a PIN or authentication pattern.
Step 5: Once authenticated, touch the ‘Delete facial data’ option in the Facial Recognition menu.
Step 6: Touch Delete and confirm your decision.
Step 7: You will see an option to register the face on your phone.
Step 8: Tap the + icon and press Continue.
Follow the on-screen instructions and register your face again.
2. Register face recognition correctly
You will need to keep a few things in mind when setting up face recognition. Make sure your face is visible during the process. Do not wear a mask, sunglasses or a hat that covers your face.
Try to register a look that you wear most often in your daily routine. If there are any major changes in your appearance, facial recognition may not work on your phone. For example, if you wear a beard all the time, don’t register your face with a clean-shaven look. Keeping a thick beard, makeup or glasses may cause an authentication error.
Samsung uses a 2D biometric method and is nothing like Apple’s advanced 3D facial unlock method. Someone who looks like you or uses an image of your face could unlock your phone.
3. Add alternative appearance
If you wear glasses regularly or have a light beard, you have the option to add an alternative appearance to improve the success rate of facial recognition. Here’s how you can add one to your phone.
Step 1: Open Samsung Settings (see the first trick) and go to Biometrics & Security.
Step 2: Select Facial Recognition and tap ‘Add alternative appearance to improve recognition’.
tep 3: Register your face with a different appearance and you will see improvements in facial recognition over time.
4. Disable lock screen swipe
As mentioned above, facial recognition is a convenient add-on to authenticate on your phone. By default, face unlock unlocks the lock screen, but requires one more swipe to go to the home screen. If you want to directly open the home screen, you need to make a setting from Settings.
Step 1: Go to Biometrics & security in Samsung Settings.
Step 2: Tap Face recognition and disable the Stay on lock screen until you swipe.
5. Enable faster recognition
You have an option to enable faster recognition on your Galaxy phone. But before you go ahead and enable it, please note that it is less secure. Here you can recognize a video or an image as your face.
Step 1: Launch Biometrics & Security in Samsung settings.
Step 2: Tap Face recognition and enable the Faster recognition option in the following menu.
6. Disable Require Eyes Open
This is yet another option that carries security risks but improves facial recognition on your Galaxy phone. If you wear sunglasses frequently, you can disable the ‘Require Eyes Open’ option and facial recognition will start working every time you wear them.
Step 1: Open the Face Recognition option in the Biometrics & Security menu.
Step 2: Disable Require Eyes Open.
7. Enable brightness display
Facial recognition does not work in low light environments? You can make a setting change that brightens the screen when using face recognition on the phone. It improves the success rate as the system can read your face correctly in a dark environment.
Launch the Settings application, open Face Recognition in the Biometrics & Security menu. Enable the screen toggle Illuminate.
Smooth authentication on Samsung Galaxy phones
Facial recognition not working may force you to go with a PIN or password to unlock the phone, which is not convenient. You can use the above tricks and improve the success rate of facial recognition. Did you notice any improvement in facial recognition on your Samsung phone? Share your findings in the comments below.