Google has updated its Drive app for iOS with Privacy Screen, a new feature that lets you log into the app with Face ID or Touch ID (via The Verge). You can set the app to lock after leaving it immediately, or after ten seconds a minute or ten minutes.
It means if your phone is stolen, or even if someone just borrows it, they won’t be able to pry into your Drive folder where you might have sensitive information saved. We updated our app and found the feature there, where it can be turned on via the new Privacy Screen option in the hamburger menu.
It’s a fairly simple way to lock others out of apps that it’s surprising more developers don’t build in. WhatsApp has a biometric entry option for iOS and Android, so it’s surprising that Google Drive hasn’t yet built in the option for its Android equivalent app.
It might be because all modern iPhones have Face ID or Touch ID and most people use them because they’re so good, and because the tech is so well implemented din the OS. By comparison, even though Google builds Android, Android does not have a consistent biometric ID type across all the manufacturers’ handsets that run it. With a more fragmented software distribution and slow uptake of new OS versions, it’s probably a lot harder to bring this feature to Android than iOS, ironically.
Author: Henry Burrell, Phones Editor
Henry is Tech Advisor’s Phones Editor, ensuring he and the team covers and reviews every smartphone worth knowing about for readers and viewers all over the world. He spends a lot of time moving between different handsets and shouting at WhatsApp to support multiple devices at once.