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iPhone 12 could revive fingerprint scanner with NEW sensor that ‘listens’ to your fingertip

APPLE could bring back the fingerprint scanner on future iPhone models – and famously ditching it in 2017.

The firm is tipped to be working on an under-screen ultrasonic sensor that verifies your identity by "listening" to your fingertip.

Apple ditched the Touch ID fingerprint scanner with the iPhone X in 2017.

The tech giant wanted to introduce an all-screen design, which required the removal of the Home button.

That meant that Touch ID (housed inside the Home button) also had to go.

It was replaced with the Face ID sensor system, which lives in a small notch that juts out into the top of the screen.

Now Apple might be working to bin Face ID too, and adopt an even more subtle alternative.

Taiwan's Economic Daily News that Apple is preparing a visit to a Foxconn factory in China to discuss "ultrasonic" fingerprint scanners.

Foxconn is a Taiwanese firm with factories across China, and has been one of Apple's chief suppliers and iPhone assemblers for years.

Apple is tipped to visit Foxconn's Chengdu, China factory to finalise details about the iPhone 12 – expected in 2020.

An "ultrasonic" fingerprint scanner can be embedded under a screen, converting audio signals into code that represents your fingerprint.

By placing acoustic transducers around the edge of the screen, you could potentially unlock your phone by tapping anywhere on a display.

Sonic fingerprint scanners aren't a completely new idea, of course.

US tech giant Qualcomm has already invented in-display "ultrasonic" fingerprint sensors.

These are featured on popular Samsung phones, including the new Galaxy S10 and Note 10.

Apple hasn't confirmed any such feature, and there's no official word on the iPhone 12.

We won't find out the truth until a new Apple smartphone announcement, which likely won't come until September 2020.

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