{"id":363598,"date":"2026-03-25T02:33:13","date_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:33:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363598\/"},"modified":"2026-03-25T02:33:13","modified_gmt":"2026-03-25T02:33:13","slug":"the-pixel-9a-might-finally-be-getting-this-long-missing-unlock-option","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/363598\/","title":{"rendered":"The Pixel 9a might finally be getting this long-missing unlock option"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  title=\"google pixel 9a home screen hero feature\"  alt=\"Someone holding a Google Pixel 9a with its screen on.\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/google-pixel-9a-home-screen-hero-feature-scaled.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Joe Maring \/ Android Authority<\/p>\n<p>TL;DR<\/p>\n<p>A Reddit report suggests the Pixel 9a may be getting screen-off fingerprint unlock.<br \/>\nThe feature lets you unlock your phone without first waking the display.<br \/>\nThe option was previously limited to the Pixel 9 series, with the Pixel 9a missing out.<\/p>\n<p>Pixel phones are updated with handy tricks fairly regularly, but not all of them make it to every model. When your device misses out on a feature that its Google counterparts get, you might assume it\u2019s never coming, but a new report suggests one <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/how-fingerprint-scanners-work-670934\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">fingerprint unlock<\/a> option may have quietly reached the Pixel 9a.<\/p>\n<p>Don\u2019t want to miss the best from Android Authority?<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/andauth.co\/AAGooglePreferredSource\" class=\"e_nm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer nofollow noopener\"><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge light@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_light@2x.png\"\/><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\"  alt=\"google preferred source badge dark@2x\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/google_preferred_source_badge_dark@2x.png\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>According to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/pixel_phones\/comments\/1s0ix8c\/does_anyone_notice_that_you_can_finally_unlock\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Reddit post<\/a> (via <a href=\"https:\/\/piunikaweb.com\/2026\/03\/23\/google-enabled-screen-off-fingerprint-unlock-pixel-9a\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">PiunikaWeb<\/a>), at least one Pixel 9a owner is seeing a \u201cscreen-off fingerprint unlock\u201d toggle in their device settings. The option lets you unlock your phone using the fingerprint sensor without first waking the display, effectively keeping the sensor active even when the screen is off.<\/p>\n<p>The original poster shared a screenshot showing the toggle inside the fingerprint settings menu. A handful of replies in the same thread also claim to see the feature, though most don\u2019t mention which device they\u2019re using, so it\u2019s unclear how many other Pixel 9a owners are actually seeing it.<\/p>\n<p><img class=\"e_lg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"  title=\"Screen Off Fingerprint Unlock Option Pixel 9a Reddit\"  alt=\"Screen Off Fingerprint Unlock Option Pixel 9a Reddit\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Screen-Off-Fingerprint-Unlock-Option-Pixel-9a-Reddit.jpg\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Despite launching after the main Pixel 9 lineup, the Pixel 9a wasn\u2019t included when this feature <a href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/pixel-screen-off-fingerprint-unlock-restored-3621578\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">returned to newer Pixels via Android 16 updates<\/a>. At the time, we speculated it might be a hardware issue. While the Pixel 9 series uses ultrasonic fingerprint scanners, the Pixel 9a sticks with an optical sensor, which may not work as reliably when the screen is off.<\/p>\n<p>As things stand, there\u2019s no clear indication of how widely this is available, and we haven\u2019t independently confirmed it yet. If you\u2019re seeing it on your Pixel 9a, let us know in the comments.<\/p>\n<p>Thank you for being part of our community. Read our\u00a0<a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" data-stringify-link=\"https:\/\/www.androidauthority.com\/android-authority-comment-policy\/\" data-sk=\"tooltip_parent\">Comment Policy<\/a> before posting.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Joe Maring \/ Android Authority TL;DR A Reddit report suggests the Pixel 9a may be getting screen-off fingerprint&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154190,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[164135,52584,61,60,202,80],"class_list":{"0":"post-363598","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-mobile","8":"tag-fingerprint-scanner","9":"tag-google-pixel-9a","10":"tag-ie","11":"tag-ireland","12":"tag-mobile","13":"tag-technology"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=363598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/363598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154190"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=363598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=363598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=363598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}