You use to be able to disable Face ID in the event of an emergency with "Hey Siri, whose phone is that?" and now you cannot.
Apple, why have you deleted this highly important security measure?
There has long (always?) been the ability to make an emergency call when locked, but there has never (intentionally) been the ability to “open sesame“ access i to a device and bypass Face ID or Touch ID or the passcode or password.
Face ID and Touch ID errors, and device restarts, and five quick presses of the side button, and certain other cases, will revert to requiring the underlying passcode or password.
Details on when FaceID and Touch ID will revert to passcode are here:
I’d here assume either a particular button press or several biometrics failures triggered the passcode or password prompt reported.
There has long (always?) been the ability to make an emergency call when locked, but there has never (intentionally) been the ability to “open sesame“ access i to a device and bypass Face ID or Touch ID or the passcode or password.
Face ID and Touch ID errors, and device restarts, and five quick presses of the side button, and certain other cases, will revert to requiring the underlying passcode or password.
Details on when FaceID and Touch ID will revert to passcode are here:
I’d here assume either a particular button press or several biometrics failures triggered the passcode or password prompt reported.
Texan375 wrote:
You most certainly could say "Hey Siri, whose phone is that" and it would lock your phone and make you have to use the password. Affectively, disabling Face ID until you typed in the password.
I've never heard of this, but after a google search, found this was a bug, which Apple patched long ago.
You asked "why?" We aren't Apple on this user to user only forum and we cannot speak for Apple at all. Given this was never meant to work in the first place, it's safe to say it won't be an option now.
How about “Siri, lock this phone”? Or just press the SIDE button? You can also press the SIDE button 5 times quickly to disable Face/Touch ID.
And I think that the reason it once worked was a bug, not a feature.
Okey Dokey. Apple doesn't monitor these forums for user feedback, regardless of what you believe. It's not an excuse. It wasn't a feature which Apple purposely introduced to begin with.
If you want to share your views with Apple, do so here, where it WILL be read --> Feedback - iPhone - Apple
You have never been able to disable Face ID without the phone’s passcode.
Pressing once locks it. Pressing 5 times disables Face ID until the phone is restarted.
The phrase works fine on my iPhone, but it does not lock the phone. I have to expressly tell Siri to lock the phone and Face ID unlocks is as expected. If asking "whose phone is that" locked your iPhone and required your passcode to unlock rather than using Face ID, it probably was an error, either with your particular device or a bug that's been fixed in one update or another.
Regards.
"Hey Siri lock this phone" doesn't appear to work for me. However, 5 times clicking the side button does. That is great IF the phone is still in your hand. Thanks for that information. Now, if we could figure out a way for Siri to do it, in case you have lost control of the phone, however it is still in your voice range.
Texan375 wrote:
You most certainly could say "Hey Siri, whose phone is that" and it would lock your phone and make you have to use the password. Affectively, disabling Face ID until you typed in the password.
You would have been asked to enter the Passcode because it did not detect the Face. Nothing unusual there and it is not disabling Face ID, it simply asks for the Passcode anytime the Face cannot be recognized. As for locking the phone when you asked that, I have never seen that happen. Not even sure if that makes sense, if the phone is unlocked, you wouldn't need to ask Siri who's phone it is.
If you need to lock your phone with password only, and quickly, Asking Siri "Hey, Siri, whose phone is that" was the perfect way. She did it immediately. Obviously you know whose phone it is. Use your imagination on different reasons why you would want your phone locked via passcode in this emergency scenario. You use to be able to do it and now you cannot.
Saying "Hey Siri lock this phone" works fine for me on my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18.0.1. Having to click the side button five times to lock your phone implies something amiss. Mine locks with only a single press of the button. Pressing it five times take it to the Power Off slider. But perhaps that's what you mean by "lock" which is not how I understand the term (nor what I believe Apple means by it).
You most certainly could say "Hey Siri, whose phone is that" and it would lock your phone and make you have to use the password. Affectively, disabling Face ID until you typed in the password.
Just using a forum to speak. I believe Apple reads these. Thanks for looking into it and finding their excuse. I am not buying it though.
Thanks, Lawrence. I think we're dealing in this thread with different ideas as to what the term "lock" is specifically referring to.
Lock to me means the screen turns off and a passcode or Face ID is required to use the iPhone again.
Why does "Hey Siri, whose phone is that" not work anymore?
