Fingerprint readers on phones have made devices more secure and faster to unlock, at least when they work on the first try. If you have trouble unlocking your phone quickly, there are things you can do to improve your device’s fingerprint reader.
Biometric identification on phones has come a long way over the last few years, with both Apple and Google building APIs to bring fingerprint scanning to the masses on their respective platforms. While the early versions were good enough to use, the later versions have gotten even better—but they’re still not perfect.
There are certain situations where fingerprint readers simply aren’t as accurate, but there are a handful of things you can do to fix this. With the right tweaks, you can achieve 100 percent first-try accuracy from your phone’s fingerprint reader.
Register the Same Finger More Than Once for Improved Accuracy
This is one of those tips that’s so simple, yet not completely obvious. If you generally unlock your phone with the same finger and find that it doesn’t work on the first try some of the time, just register that finger a second time. Both Android and iOS let you register multiple fingerprints, and there’s no rule that says they can’t be for the same finger.
While the system sees it as a “new” fingerprint, it will simply improve accuracy from that one finger. The odds are you won’t have to add it more than once, and the accuracy will be dramatically improved.
Register Both Hands for Unlocking in Any Situation
It may seem obvious, but you should register fingers on both hands. This way, if the hand you generally unlock your phone with is **bleep**, you can still unlock your phone easily with the other one. Similarly, it’s probably a good idea to register multiple fingers on each hand.
Also, go ahead and register all additional fingers a couple of times too. You know, for accuracy.
