Iris Scanner which first debuted on the most controversial Galaxy Note7 though failed to create an impact has opened up to a new biometric authentication. With Apple implementing the Face Unlock feature, Android OEMs have developed their own version of the facial unlocking system and made it a mainstream feature.
It now looks like Google is working on natively providing support for Iris scanner in Android according to the recent commits. HAL interface will standardize how the Android framework will communicate with Iris scanners. Which also means that AOSP ROMs will get the ability to generically work with Iris Scanners hardware.
The Commits also include the base Iris feature in Android which will allow apps to detect if the device has an Iris scanner in place. The inclusion of the Iris framework will allow third-party apps to utilize the Iris scanner for authentication in the future if need be. In the Manifest Framework, the permission titled “android.permission.USE_IRIS” has a protection level of “normal,” so third-party apps would indeed be able to request the permission from users.
There is another commit that adds support for iris identification in the keyguard which allows users to scan their Iris to dismiss the lock screen. According to the commit, iris authentication will become functional only when the screen is turned on in order to reduce power consumption. Lastly, Iris scanner can also be disabled according to the Device Policy Manager.
All these Commits adds new biometric security authentication, but since they are not merged yet, we can’t tell if this implementation would come into effect right away.