How to Use the Face Unlock Feature in Lollipop

No one takes privacy and security for granted. It is safe to assume that most of you use lock screen protected with password, patterns and PINs. That is a good thing; if you want an illusion of security. These password, patterns and PINs can be known simply by peeking when you are typing them. And obviously you don’t use a password with 18+ characters as you need to access your phone frequently each day. Luckily for you there is another lock screen security feature on Android – the Face Unlock feature. Face Unlock feature is not a new thing for Android but it has improved a lot on the Android’s new operating system – Lollipop. Let’s see what has improved and how to use it.

How to Use the Face Unlock Feature in Lollipop

In the previous versions of Android you could directly set up Face Unlock as your lock screen security from Settings > Security > Screen lock and selecting Face Unlock. But in Lollipop, you need to perform one extra step. You need to first assign any of the 3 lock screen security options to enable the Face Unlock feature. To do so, go to Settings > Security > Screen Lock and set up any of the 3 security options. After you’ve done so, you can now access the Smart Lock option. Tap on it and select Trusted face. Take some shots of your face and select the one you think is perfect. Follow the steps and you’re done.

Now let see if you did it correctly. Lock your device and look at the bottom of it. The small user icon that use to appear previously is now changed to a padlock icon. This indicates you successfully assigned Face Unlock. Slide the padlock icon to unlock your device. The unlocking process speed has improved significantly too.

You can also improve the accuracy of the face recognition. If you sometime use glasses or grow a beard, this is for you. Go to Trusted face option again and select Improved face matching. Let the device recognize your face from different angles, with and without your glasses or beard and any other stuffs you pain your face with. Now use the Face Unlock feature again without any worries.