It has long been rumored that Apple is going to bring Face ID to iPads and that possibility appears to have been confirmed by the first iOS 12 beta. iOS developer Guilherme Rambo has been digging into the beta and has discovered code which seemingly confirms that Face ID will be coming to the iPad. He has tweeted screenshots which reveal that iOS 12 has hidden references to Face ID for iPad, it even has the relevant sections of the settings menu and the setup UI for the tablet.
Face ID is Apple’s facial recognition technology that it introduced with the iPhone X last year. It’s a 3D solution which makes it much safer compared to 2D solutions that offer more convenience than they do privacy.
The fact that the setup UI has been discovered in the iOS 12 beta suggests that Face ID hardware may indeed be integrated into iPads of the future. There would be no need for a setup UI otherwise. So it appears that there is truth to the countless reports we have seen so far about an iPad with Face ID.
Exactly when this tablet is going to be released remains to be seen. Apple didn’t talk about launching new iPads at its WWDC 2018 event yesterday so it’s unclear when this iPad with Face ID might arrive.
The Face ID setup UI is finally working on iPad. Clearly not done yet as can be seen by the descriptions mentioning "iPhone". But it's a start :) pic.twitter.com/PVQgfbne15
— Guilherme Rambo (@_inside) June 5, 2018