OnePlus 6 face unlock allegedly outsmarted by photo

The OnePlus 6‘s face ID unlock method can potentially be outsmarted by a photograph. A tweet posted yesterday, which made it to the top of r/Android subreddit, includes a video that apparently displays the feat.

In the footage, a person holds a photograph of another person in front of their own face to “trick” the OnePlus 6 into unlocking. We don’t actually see the OnePlus 6 unlock (it’s facing away from the camera), though, so it could have been faked.

With that being said, most Android phones can probably have their face ID security spoofed by photographs — even premium phones like the Galaxy Note 8 can. While that’s still somewhat disappointing, if this is the case for the OnePlus 6, it wouldn’t be a shock. The OnePlus 6 even has a disclaimer that pops up when you select face ID as the unlock method (users can still use a pattern or PIN) to state that it is not completely secure.

To that end, this doesn’t seem like it would be such a grave faux pas on OnePlus’ side of things but more of an Android-wide issue.

In a statement (picked up by Phone Arena), OnePlus said:

“We designed Face Unlock around convenience, and while we took corresponding measures to optimize its security we always recommended you use a password/PIN/fingerprint for security. For this reason, Face Unlock is not enabled for any secure apps such as banking or payments. We’re constantly working to improve all of our technology, including Face Unlock.”

Give us your thoughts on the revelations in the comments.