I want you to picture a scene. You are in a rush to get to work and forget your wallet on the way out of the house. Don't worry, you have your iPhone 12 with Apple Pay. You approach a subway turnstile and hold your iPhone over a near-field communication (NFC) spot for contactless payment.

Face ID won't recognize your face as you are wearing a mask because the COVID-19 threat is still very real. So you groping to enter the passcode, but in the meantime, an impatient New Yorker or Londoner passes by you, and your phone slips from the grape cluster and smashes to pieces on the floor. As a result, you will be late for work, and your unsympathetic boss will be outraged. However, if Apple really brings back Touch ID to the iPhone, this somewhat over-the-top scenario could be avoided.

I find Face ID to be wonderfully fast and reliable, especially when compared to its Android counterparts; FaceID can even handle messy faces, such as those with glasses, obtrusive over-ear headphones, and sleepy faces. However, it falls apart when it tries to recognize my face with my mouth and nose covered by a mask in an attempt to avoid a deadly virus.

So, with a fingerprint scanner under the display, the next and future iPhones can be unlocked without the risk of removing the mask and touching my face.

The incessant iPhone rumors are that the iPhone 13 will have Touch ID under the display, finally giving the iPhone what Android phones have had for years. Recently unearthed Apple patents confirm this. However, other rumors have since claimed that under-display Touch ID will only appear in time for the iPhone 14.

As reported by Patently Apple, the patent describes an under-display camera integrated into the iPhone for biometric identification:

"According to Apple, the optical imaging array is positioned behind the display and is generally not in contact with light emitted from the display. oriented to receive light transmitted through the display in a direction generally opposite to the light emitted from the display. Optical imaging arrays can be used by electronic devices for any suitable imaging, sensing, or data aggregation purposes, including but not limited to: ambient light sensing; proximity sensing; depth sensing; structured light reception; optical communications; proximity sensing; biometric imaging (e.g., fingerprint imaging, iris imaging, facial recognition, etc.);"

Tom's Guide has already discussed that waiting until 2022 to add Touch ID to the flagship iPhone is not ideal. However, it would still be nice to have an additional biometric security option.

Face ID security is not a concern, as Apple keeps biometric data in a secure enclave on current iPhones, but it is less desirable to have the iPhone 12 unlocked every time you glance at it. All someone has to do is swipe up on my iPhone when the lock symbol is released, grab the device, and they can access my apps and data.

Of course, they wouldn't be able to cause a major disruption without long term access to my face, but they would have enough time to send an offensive tweet that would end my career. With Touch ID, however, this would be solved, as all I would have to do is look at the notifications on my iPhone without having to unlock it.

It's a small thing, but it will definitely make the next generation iPhone more attractive to me, primarily as an Android phone user. And even more so if Apple can use Touch ID as a way to eliminate the display notch or at least make it much smaller.

While the Cupertino folks will not abandon Face ID technology, an extra level of biometrics could serve as a safety net for Apple to try Face ID, such as placing a camera or sensor under the display. I would gladly trade a notchless Retina display, 120Hz refresh rate, and under-display or side-mounted (like the iPad Air's fingerprint scanner) Touch ID for a snappy or unreliable Face ID.

I still hope Apple will add Touch ID to the iPhone 13. But if this doesn't happen, I'm hoping that Touch ID on the iPhone 14 will make it a dramatically different Apple phone from recent generations of flagship iPhones. iPhone 12 is good, but the notch-heavy design is getting a bit boring. It's getting a bit boring, and I feel that the iPhone's overall aesthetics need to be revisited.