{"id":923070,"date":"2026-10-06T18:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/923070\/"},"modified":"2026-10-06T18:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-10-06T18:28:10","slug":"google-could-soon-solve-pixels-biggest-face-unlock-flaw","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/923070\/","title":{"rendered":"Google could soon solve Pixel’s biggest face unlock flaw"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"google<\/p>\n

Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n

Add Android Authority on Google: <\/p>\n

TL;DR<\/p>\n

Code within Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1 reveals Google is working on a \u201cFace Active Illumination\u201d feature, likely designed to assist face unlock in low light.
\nCode clues suggest controls for a brightness scale, as well as toggles for bedtime, driving, dark environments, and Do Not Disturb.
\nThe feature likely uses display brightness rather than IR technology, though its connection to Google\u2019s rumored Project Toscana couldn\u2019t be ruled out.<\/p>\n

Google\u2019s modern face unlock on recent Pixel flagships is Class 3 biometric certified, but as anyone who has tried unlocking their phone in a dim bedroom knows, it is practically useless once the lights go down. That shortcoming has long fueled anticipation around Google\u2019s secretive Project Toscana<\/a>, an effort to overhaul facial authentication across Pixel devices, Chromebooks, and presumably Googlebooks by extension. Now, new code discovered in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1<\/a> reveals that Google is actively building a \u201cFace Active Illumination\u201d system to help solve face unlock\u2019s low-light authentication woes.<\/p>\n

You\u2019re reading an Authority Insights<\/a> story. Authority Insights brings you all the latest exclusive reports, app teardowns, leaks, and in-depth tech coverage from the Android Authority team that you won\u2019t find anywhere else.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve spotted several clues in Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1 suggesting Google is working on a \u201cFace Active Illumination\u201d feature for Pixel devices, at least, which could make face authentication more reliable in low-light conditions. The code points to dedicated toggles for activating the feature, controlling its brightness, and specifying when it should be allowed to activate, but it doesn\u2019t reveal exactly which hardware provides the illumination.<\/p>\n

Code<\/p>\n

Copy TextThe device must support face active illumination
\nillumination_brightness_scale
\nillumination_dark_allowed
\nillumination_bedtime_allowed
\nillumination_dnd_allowed
\nillumination_driving_allowed<\/p>\n

While we managed to activate the feature, we could only get an incomplete and seemingly empty UI to appear at this stage. Strings within the app (other than the \u201cDo Not Disturb\u201d text) are also obfuscated, so there\u2019s still a fair bit of mystery around this feature, how it would work, and what it could even be called for its final marketing name.<\/p>\n

\"Google\"Google<\/p>\n

From the UI, we can infer that the \u201cFace Active Illumination\u201d feature is within the Face Unlock settings and may offer three brightness levels via a slider. When read with the code, the toggles could let users choose whether illumination will be used in dark environments (maybe referring to dark mode?), during bedtime hours, during Do Not Disturb, and while driving.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s unclear whether Face Active Illumination uses IR technology, as previously spotted under Project Toscana, or is merely ramping up screen brightness to throw more light on your face for easier face unlock. The presence of toggles doesn\u2019t instill confidence for the former, as users wouldn\u2019t need granular control over an IR-based system, much like we see (or quite literally, don\u2019t see) with Face ID on the iPhone. It is thus likely to be the latter, as the toggles would allow users to avoid flashbanging themselves with their phone display in certain low-light situations.<\/p>\n

Google hasn\u2019t announced any details about Face Active Illumination or Project Toscana, and there\u2019s a fair chance the two aren\u2019t related. We\u2019ll keep you updated when we learn more details about either.<\/p>\n

\u26a0\ufe0f An APK teardown helps predict features that may arrive on a service in the future based on work-in-progress code. However, it is possible that such predicted features may not make it to a public release.<\/p>\n

Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Maring \/ Android Authority Add Android Authority on Google: TL;DR Code within Android 17 QPR3 Beta 1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":923071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[5497,49,48,192,1123,190,61],"class_list":["post-923070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-mobile","tag-authority-insights","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-google","tag-google-pixel","tag-mobile","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=923070"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/923070\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/923071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=923070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=923070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=923070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}