Last month, Google brought back a convenient security feature when it released Android 16 QPR2 for Pixel devices. On our Pixel 9 and newer phones, we discovered the option to unlock the phone with the fingerprint scanner with the screen off. That’s right, you wouldn’t need to first turn the screen on or tap it to make the fingerprint scanner’s active area visible. And it works even when you have the always-on display (AoD) turned off.
That saves a couple of seconds and the extra step of turning the screen on first, so it’s definitely something desirable. That may be because it makes the under-display feel as quick and seamless as a physical fingerprint scanner. However, Google limited the functionality to the Pixel 9 and Pixel 10 phones only, presumably because the older devices lack ultrasonic fingerprint scanners.
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Despite the feature’s exclusivity, we asked whether you’d like the same feature on older Pixel devices, and we unsurprisingly received one major response.
Soooo many of you desire fingerprint unlocking with the screen off
More than 71% of the readers who participated in our poll said they wanted this feature on their Pixel 8 or older Pixel phones. One of our readers, plankonn, said, “It’s good for people that use watches to unlock their phone and don’t use AOD, because with this option enabled the phone unlocks instantly with a single tap on the FP scanner.”
A smaller percentage, just about 16%, said they would like it if it didn’t hog the battery as much as an AoD would. Meanwhile, an even smaller percentage said they wouldn’t bother since they already use AoD.
The most reasonable explanation for skipping the functionality on older Pixels is that those devices feature optical fingerprint scanners rather than ultrasonic sensors, as do the newer Pixel 9 and 10 series. Some readers, however, also pointed us to a workaround that enables the functionality on older devices using ADB. However, there are limitations with the method, or the solution has stopped working altogether on certain devices.
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