iOS 14.5 Allows You to Unlock Your iPhone With Your Apple Watch ⇥ macrumors.com

Juli Clover, MacRumors:

Apple today released the iOS 14.5 and iPadOS 14.5 beta updates for developers, and included in the new software is a feature that’s designed to make it easier to unlock an iPhone while wearing a mask by leveraging the Apple Watch.

An opt-in setting lets you turn on a feature that allows an iPhone to be unlocked with both Face ID and an authenticated Apple Watch combined. You can find this setting by opening up the Settings app, going to the Face ID & Passcode section, entering your passcode, and then toggling on “Unlock with Apple Watch.”

People have been begging for this for the last year but I am not surprised it has taken so long. The security architecture of this must be fascinating. An Apple Watch remains unlocked on your wrist by authenticating with the connected iPhone; now the iPhone is also authenticated by that same Apple Watch. Looks like I picked a bad time to not own a functioning Apple Watch.