Rumor: Samsung Galaxy phones are getting voice unlock

Samsung would like to add voice unlocking as an option for biometric authentication on its smartphones. The feature is said to be on the Galaxy S21 and will appear on other phones as an update later on.

The feature will first only be available for the Galaxy S21 in OneUI 3.1, SamMobile reports. The feature would come to be called Bixby Voice Unlock and become one of the unlock options in the settings menu. Bixby is the name of Samsung’s digital assistant, for which a separate button was reserved for some time on the case of high-end models such as the Galaxy S8 and S9.

Presumably, users would have to say a word or part of a sentence a few times, after which the software stores characteristics of the voice and compares it with the voice that can be heard when the phone is subsequently unlocked. SamMobile notes that, like 2d facial recognition based on a camera image, it is a relatively insecure way of unlocking.

Bixby has had a voice unlock feature before, but it has since disappeared from the software. According to previous rumors, Samsung would like to present the S21 in January. The specs appeared online a few weeks ago.