how to unlock my phone, hands-free

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Level 1

8 points

how to unlock my phone, hands-free

Dear community

My question is this: My SE and I live in a state where you must use your phone hands-free in the car. I use a bluetooth earpiece (an old Blue Ant) with my phone (the car is also old, so nothing can work through the car itself), which works for making and receiving calls, hearing and dictating messages, except...

...once the phone goes to auto-lock, I can't find a way to open it again without picking it up and entering my passcode, which of course, the law prohibits. There doesn't seem to be a hands-free way of entering my passcode (although that seems both sensible and possible).

So, once the phone goes dark...I can still receive and make calls...but I can't get the phone to read me my messages, or to let me dictate a message. My memory is, that up till last fall, with my old iPhone 5 (and an older iOS), I could do this. But since getting the SE and/or updating to a newer iOS (and now I have the most recent, 10.2.1)...I can't do this anymore. (The closest thing to a "solution" I have found, is to remember before I start driving, to put auto-lock on "never"...but I have to remember, and it is a bit rough on battery life.)

Am I missing something? Is there a way to unlock the phone without touching it? Was this an intended or unintended consequence of an iOS update? Or....?

Nick

iPhone SE, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Mar 21, 2017 11:19 AM

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Answer 1

ndlsf Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 21, 2017 11:30 AM in response to KiltedTim

Thanks, and you are right. I don't generally think to do that in the car (because where the phone sits in my car, I'd have to pick it up to do that. And sometimes it doesn't recognize my finger, or how I put my finger on the phone.).

But if the phone insists on being unlocked to use the message functions via bluetooth...is there really no way to use Siri to unlock it by voice?

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Answer 2

Mar 22, 2017 3:47 PM in response to ndlsf

No siri cannot unlock a device. Remember you can put in up to five fingers/thumbs to use. Also, to help avoid the issue of how you place it, when programming a finger in, be sure to move it around a lot during the repeated sampling step (literally, put your finger on it in multiple 360 degree orientations so it learns your print from multiple angles).

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Answer 3

ndlsf Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2017 3:47 PM in response to Michael Black

Michael..

Thanks for that. Between you and Tim, the answer seems clearly that what I'd like to do, I can't do. So I will take that advice, and set up my Touch ID for multiple fingers, and then I think, pop the phone in a dashboard stand.

But Apple, if you read these, I'd like to suggest that a way to unlock the phone verbally, would not be out of place (nor unsafe, I would think, if I am just telling Siri the same numbers I'd be entering manually). It is true though that I am not a scientist, so perhaps there's an issue here I'm not seeing.

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Answer 4

Mar 22, 2017 4:21 PM in response to ndlsf

While I'm not saying to expect it anytime in the foreseeable future, it's not impossible that future devices would have the compute power to use voice recognition in place of fingerprint recognition. That would be cool, the whole "my voice is my passcode" type of thing.

I think perhaps an issue with just dictating a passcode to Siri is that Siri offloads your words to Apple's servers for voice recognition. That's why Siri requires a data connection to work - current devices simply cannot handle the database and compute requirements for reliable voice recognition. Apple has a stated policy that your device password and fingerprint reside solely on your device and are never transmitted or shared with any system or service at all. It's part of the essence of their solely user controlled device security policy.

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Answer 5

KiltedTim

Level 10

203,746 points

Mar 21, 2017 11:23 AM in response to ndlsf

The iPhone SE supports touch ID. Have you set up a fingerprint for touch ID? You can use Touch ID to unlock the phone instead of having to enter a passcode.

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Answer 6

ndlsf Author

Level 1

8 points

Mar 22, 2017 3:50 PM in response to KiltedTim

Tim

And just to close the (infinite) loop now, I think my answer is that what I wanted to do, I can't. So Touch ID and a phone mounted at hand level in the car seem like the solutions. Thanks again.

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