Now that Apple has debuted the iPhone X with Face ID, all major smartphones launching next year will also feature some kind of facial recognition. Samsung already includes face recognition and iris scanning on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8, but the speed and security of the scanners leave a lot to be desired. 

A report from Korean website claims that Samsung is now looking to improve the speed of facial and iris scanning on the Galaxy S9 — its flagship smartphone for 2018. The company intends to improve the unlocking speed with both biometric methods while still retaining the same basic parts and structures.

Additionally, the report cites that Samsung is looking to further add more value to the iris scanner and facial recognition by introducing more software-based features to it. It is unclear what kind of features the report is hinting to here, though knowing Samsung, I don’t expect them to be groundbreaking or really useful. Hopefully, the update will also make the iris and facial scanner more accurate and reliable.

The iris scanner on the Galaxy S8 and Note 8 suffers from the same limitations as Apple’s Face ID, though it is considerably less secure as it can be easily fooled by a photo. The scanner works extremely fast in low-light scenarios but struggles when used under direct sunlight. As for facial recognition, it fails to work properly in low-light and can be easily fooled. While a speed boost in the unlock process would definitely be a welcome addition on the Galaxy S9, Samsung should ideally look into making iris and face scanning more secure with the handset.