Apple to bring 120 Hz upgrades, Face ID with a mask and vaccination passes to iPhones with iOS 15.4

Apple may have released iOS 15.3 this week, but the company has already moved onto iOS 15.4 public betas. Available from today, iOS 15.4 Beta 1 brings quite a few new features to iPhones and builds on others that were already available in another capacity. Unfortunately, Apple has not announced when it will roll out iOS 15.4 to iPhones not enrolled on its beta program.

Specifically, Apple is testing Face ID authentication when people are wearing face masks. Previously, it was possible to unlock an iPhone using Face ID while wearing a mask, but only if you were also wearing an Apple Watch. As the screenshots below show, Face ID will be capable of authenticating someone from merely the top half of their face. However, Apple will enable the feature on just the iPhone 12 and iPhone 13 series. In a statement, Apple confirmed that:

Apple adds that there is a roughly 1 in 1,000,00 chance of someone spoofing your enrolled face when wearing a mask. This probability only applies to adults, though. Also, Apple has not confirmed if it will bring this feature to iPadOS. It is unclear if the feature will work with cultural and religious face coverings, as well.

Additionally, Apple has integrated vaccine certificates within its Health and Wallet apps. As it stands, the technology works in some EU Member States, such as Italy, but it may not work Europe-wide. Theoretically, this would free people from installing a dedicated app. Separately, it seems that Apple has fixed third-party app support for 120 Hz ProMotion displays, currently just the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max. iOS has kept third-party apps at 60 Hz until now, for reference. iCloud+ subscribers should be able to add email domains directly on an iPhone too, rather than through the iCloud website.

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