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Mobile App Development vocabulary · Permissions, Privacy and Security

Biometric authentication

Meaning in mobile app development, with examples

nounCommon term

In mobile app development, biometric authentication means: Confirming a user's identity with a physical feature, such as a fingerprint or a face scan, instead of or in addition to a password or PIN.

In Turkish: biyometrik kimlik doğrulama, biyometrik giriş

How it is used

On iOS this means Face ID and Touch ID through the LocalAuthentication framework; on Android, BiometricPrompt. Banking and health apps use it to unlock the app or approve payments. The app never receives the fingerprint or face data, only a success or failure result.

Example sentences

  1. Users can turn on biometric authentication to log in with Face ID.

  2. If biometric authentication fails three times, fall back to the PIN.

Common collocations

  • biometric login
  • Face ID
  • Touch ID
  • fall back to a passcode
  • keychainApple's encrypted storage for small secrets such as passwords, tokens and keys, protected by the system and kept separate from normal app data.
  • permissionThe user's approval that an app needs before it can use sensitive features or data, such as the camera, location, contacts or notifications.
  • jailbreakRemoving the software limits Apple puts on an iPhone so it can run unapproved apps and changes; on Android, getting similar full access is called rooting.
  • privacy policyA public document that explains what personal data an app collects, why it collects it, who it is shared with and how users can control it.

This word in other fields

The same English word can have a different meaning in another field:

More terms: Permissions, Privacy and Security

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