Facebook appears to confirm Biometric lock for Messenger

We reported a few days ago that it appeared that Facebook is working on a new feature for Facebook Messenger which would add “Face ID” lock to your Facebook Messenger app.

Discovered by Jane Wong, she speculated that the feature will eventually default to the built-in biometric technology in your phone, which should mean despite scanning your face Facebook will in fact not get a daily shot of your face.

Now Alexandru Voica, Facebook’s tech comms manager, appears to confirm that Facebook would use whatever biometric security your device offers, and I believe is also tacitly confirming that the feature is coming.

For these types of privacy features, we would use the face id-type settings already present on the device, not our own version. https://t.co/nEvnfiFQmx

— Alexandru Voica ? (@alexvoica) January 26, 2020

The biometric lock would make it harder for friends, family and others to snoop on your messages, who are after all most likely to pick up your unlocked phone and be interested in the contents of your messages.

The new Screen Lock feature will automatically lock your Facebook Messenger app until it is unlocked with Face ID.

Despite the confirmation of sorts, the feature is currently experimental and may or not make it to a final release.