How to Use Apple Watch to Unlock iPhone

We’ve all been there right? You are out and about and you take out your iPhone to check a notification or make a call, and you have to enter your password because you’re wearing a mask. Yeah, Face ID‘s inability to unlock iPhones when you are wearing a mask is one of the biggest troubles of using an iPhone in this pandemic. However, there’s now finally a way to use Face ID with a mask. Here’s how to use Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone with Face ID when you’re wearing a mask.

How to Use Face ID with a Mask

While there have been a lot of tricks to make Face ID work with masks, none of them really work. At least not very reliably. But now, with iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4, you can use your Apple Watch to unlock your iPhone.

Note: iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 are currently in the developer beta stage, but the stable version should be released by the end of this month. 

Use Apple Watch to Unlock iPhone

If you’re using an Apple Watch and a Mac, you probably already know that you can use your watch to unlock your laptop. Apple’s new feature pretty much brings that same convenience to the iPhone as well. Here’s how you can set up this feature.

• On your iPhone go to Settings -> Face ID and Passcode and enter your iPhone password.

• Scroll down and you will see a new option called ‘Unlock with Apple Watch’. Simply enable the toggle next to the Apple Watch you want to use to unlock your iPhone.

This might take a few seconds to enable, just be patient. Make sure you’re wearing your Apple Watch and that it is unlocked.

Note: In order to use this feature, your Apple Watch must be protected by a passcode. This is to ensure that your iPhone can’t be unlocked when you’re not wearing your Apple Watch.

Lock iPhone with Apple Watch

Once you’ve set up the feature, you can try using Face ID with a mask on. As long as you’re wearing your Apple Watch and it’s unlocked your iPhone will get unlocked as well. However, in case your iPhone gets unlocked by someone else, you can always lock it with your Apple Watch too.

When your iPhone is unlocked with an Apple Watch your watch will show a notification informing you about it. In the same notification, you’ll find a button that says ‘Lock iPhone’. You can simply tap on this and the iPhone will get locked again, and you’ll have to enter your passcode the next time you try to unlock your iPhone with Face ID.

Easily Use Face ID on iPhone with a Mask

So that’s how you can use Face ID on iPhone with a mask. Unlike most of the weird tricks that are found on the internet, this is a feature built by Apple and it actually works all the time. Ever since I’ve updated my iPhone to the latest beta, I’ve been using this constantly and it’s never failed. So, are you going to use your Apple Watch to unlock iPhone with Face ID? Let us know in the comments.