Google working on ‘Face Match’ facial recognition feature

Face unlock feature is among the most preferred authentication feature nowadays. Most of the smartphone manufacturers are releasing devices that come enabled with the Face Unlock feature. However, the facial recognition might not be a reliable option in case of a missing dedicated hardware. In case of a missing dedicated hardware, the feature can be bypassed using an image of the user. Currently, Apple's Face ID is the most secure facial recognition feature available in the market.

Android also has a facial recognition feature which is called as 'Trusted Face' system. This feature, however, has not been as successful as the Apple's Face ID. Now, Google is working towards another facial recognition feature which will be integrated with Google Assistant.

As per the code of the Google app's latest version, some information related to the new Google Assistant feature which is called 'Face Match' has been spotted. As the name suggests the 'Face Match' feature could be a facial recognition feature developed by the tech giant.

It is being reported that XDA-Developers had conducted an APK teardown of the Google app's latest build. The APK teardown of the app revealed that the 'Face Match' feature is mentioned as a Google Assistant setting in the code. Besides, the code further suggests that the Face Match feature will collect data both in the form of images as well as videos. The teardown further comprises a separate page for 'Face Match' enrollment in the Assistant settings directory.

The Google app's code combines the Face Match feature with an 'AvocadoOnboarding' class. Notably, the Avocodo is the codename given to a new feature in the Assistant settings section. The feature was spotted recently and it requires permission in order to access the camera of a device. Upon testing the code further it was revealed that Avocodo primarily relies on 'face detector dependencies' and a 'happiness' index. These factors refer to a feature in Google's Machine Learning API Kit which is further utilized for Face Detection.

This indicates that Google could replace the' Trusted Faces' feature with 'Face Match' feature however it is not clear currently as to when the changes will take place or when the feature will be available for the users, however, we will keep you posted on the same.