Today Top Android phones Everyone has fingerprint sensors in display, and this technology has made great strides over the years. In fact, many modern advanced phones have ultrasound sensors with fast, accurate unlock and the ability to scan wet fingers.
However, I recently returned to Samsung The Galaxy S8 while working on another article, and I realized I really missed fingerprint scanner movements on old smartphones.
Not just a biometric locking option
Many phones in the middle to the end of the 2010s offered back fingerprint scanners, such as Galaxy S8 and S9, LG G6 and Huawei P9. However, Huawei’s comrade S was the first phone that actually offers gestures through these scanners, and I quickly fell in love with the concept at that time.
My favorite action was easy to swipe down on the scanner to activate the warning shadow. This was especially useful on “phablets” back in the day, so you can easily check your notifications or access quick setting bosses without performing hand gymnastics. And of course, a quick swipe up on the fingerprint scanner would reject the warning shade. Simple but effective things.
Did you use rear fingerprint scanner movements?
1365 votes
Huawei also used the fingerprint scanner for other actions, with a tap-and-team gesture that let you take pictures, turn off alarms and respond to calls. You can even swipe laterally to scroll through pictures in a gallery. I appreciated the opportunity to take selfies via the scanner, as it can be difficult to tap the screen on the screen, but I didn’t care to swipe through images with the scanner.
It’s no wonder Google copied Huawei in 2016 and brought rear fingerprint scanner movements to the original Pixel and Pixel XL. In fact, this feature was an inventory of most pixels until 2020s Pixel 5-fingerprint readers in today’s today Pixel 9 Don’t support it, unfortunately. Unlike Huawei, Google just lets you use your fingerprint scanner to exchange the warning shadow, but I thought this was far from the best use of that gesture anyway.
It didn’t take long for Samsung to follow, with the Galaxy S8, Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S9 and Galaxy Note 9 which all let you swipe down on the scanner to see notifications. Once again, Samsung did not let us adapt this gesture, but when I swept up and down my galaxy S8 this past week, I realized I didn’t need any more. The sensor’s location on the back fits perfectly with my index when I hold the phone, and it is so much easier and more fluid for me to perform a small swipe on it than raising your thumb over the screen and swipe down.
The movement made so much sense that even LG and Motorola later used this option on their phones with back scanners.
A relic of a bygone era but a great feature anyway
Robert Triggs / Android Authority
Rear fingerprint scanner movements fell on the roadside when the industry embraced sensors on the display in 2018 and 2019, but fingerprint scanner movements have not completely disappeared.
Companies like Xiaomi allow you to hold and swipe the app scanner for app snar roads, although I do not like these shortcuts cannot be adapted. We have also seen Realme and Xiaomi using the fingerprint sensor for heart rate measurements. Further Realme gt7 pro‘s ultrasound scanner can be used to take images underwater.
It is clear that companies are still working on some interesting ways to use biometrics beyond authentication. Still, I miss the back fingerprint scanner movements on today’s narrow and high phones. So let’s pour one out for a feature that time forgot.