The iOS 15.4 update is out. The biggest feature by far is Use Face ID with a Mask. It makes daily iPhone use a much better experience for those wearing face masks with iPhone 12 and later. Even though America and other countries are rolling back face mask requirements, many Japanese will probably keep them on even if Japanese authorities follow the maskless trend. Wearing a face mask has become such an ingrained second nature that people wear them even when it doesn’t make sense, like walking in an empty park at a night.
When it comes to using Suica you might think Express Transit mode removes all Face ID with face mask Apple Pay issues. Here’s the thing, Suica is easily the most used Apple Pay card in Japan and the most used transit card on the Apple Pay platform. You still need Face ID authorization to recharge a Suica in Wallet, and there’s the Face ID misread problem. 5 Face ID misreads deactivates Express Transit Mode that Suica users depend on.
The Face ID with face mask misread problem is big enough that JR East Apple Pay Suica support reissued a notice outlining the causes. 5 Face ID misreads is very easy to do when wearing a face mask and it deactivates Express Transit Mode without any UI feedback or alert, tripping up Express Transit Suica users at the transit gate or store reader with a passcode prompt. Unexpected passcode prompts at transit gates or bus exit readers with people behind you are flustering ‘I wanna go back to plastic’ experiences.
I also wonder if QR Code payment apps have brainwashed young people into thinking they have to open an app for every payment and transit gate. There are enough user comments on social media to suggest people open Suica App in the mistaken assumption they need launch Suica App to use Suica. Imagine doing that every time you want to use Express Transit Suica…head scratchingly pointless.
The good thing is that iOS 15.4 Face ID with a face mask solves this mess…finally. In Japan that’s big. Face ID with a mask restores the Express Transit Suica and the whole Apple Pay user experience to what it was before Face ID. It’s too bad that Apple didn’t have this feature in place back at the iPhone X launch because Face ID without the ‘use with a mask’ option seriously dented the whole Apple Pay and Express Transit experience. That omission was a big design failure on Apple’s part. At the very least Apple should have included distinct and clear UI notification so users could tell when Face ID misreads had disabled Express Transit mode.
iOS 15.4 Face ID with a mask is long overdue. Between the iPhone X NFC problem and the 5 Face ID misreads disable Express Transit problem, the stellar Suica experience on Face ID iPhone has been a long slow disaster. iPhone Face ID users in Asia complained about the Face ID with face mask issue for years but this fell on deaf ears. Why did it take a COVID crisis for Apple to fix it?
Hopefully Apple leadership has finally learned an important lesson, with improved, highly secure, face mask friendly Face ID and better Express Mode status feedback coming to a future iPhone near you.
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