Apple tests under‑display Face ID

Apple’s under-display Face ID work, if the recent leak is directionally right, is best understood as an optics problem before it is a design story. Face ID relies on infrared light, a dot projector and a sensor stack that have to work through a display layer that was never designed to be optically invisible. Apple has been trying to solve that for years in patents and supply-chain testing, while preserving the speed and reliability users already expect from Face ID. ### Why is putting Face ID under the screen harder than hiding a selfie camera? Face ID is not one sensor. Apple’s TrueDepth system uses infrared components to project and read a structured pattern, and that makes it more sensitive to distortion than a basic front camera. A display stack can scatter, absorb or bend that infrared light, which can slow recognition or reduce accuracy. A January 2025 Apple patent, titled “Methods and Configurations for Improving the Performance of Sensors Under a Display,” addressed that exact issue. (phonearena.com) The patent described removing selected subpixels and some associated wiring so infrared light can pass through clearer gaps in the panel. 9to5Mac, citing the patent, said Apple also described rerouting control lines to create more open areas and reduce diffraction for light traveling through the display. ### What do the latest leaks add beyond the older patent trail? A December 2025 leak cited by MacRumors said Apple was testing a special “spliced micro-transparent glass” window built into the display for under-screen Face ID. MacRumors said the approach was meant to let the TrueDepth system’s infrared sensors pass through the panel with less distortion. The newer social-media leak referenced in this story goes a step further in describing the likely physical implementation: not just better infrared handling through the panel, but a localized translucent area or “glass island” above the projector path. (phonearena.com) If accurate, that suggests Apple may be combining two fixes at once — improving transmission through the display generally, while creating a more controlled optical path for the most sensitive emitter. That is an inference from the leak and the patent trail, not a confirmed Apple description. (macrumors.com) ### Why would Apple use a tiny translucent zone instead of making the whole display transparent? A localized solution is easier to control in manufacturing. A smartphone display has to balance brightness, color uniformity, touch responsiveness and durability across the entire panel, so changing only a small area above a sensor is less disruptive than redesigning the whole screen. Apple’s 2025 patent similarly focused on selective pixel and wiring changes in a defined region rather than a fully different display architecture. (9to5mac.com) MacRumors’ report on the later leak also pointed to a localized window rather than a fully transparent panel. That lines up with a staged migration: move some Face ID hardware beneath the display first, keep the front camera visible, and shrink rather than eliminate the Dynamic Island. ### Does this mean the Dynamic Island disappears next? Recent reporting has not been consistent on that point. MacRumors said in December 2025 that under-display Face ID could still leave a smaller visible cutout for the front camera, and it cited analyst Ross Young and Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman as pointing to a reduced, not necessarily eliminated, Dynamic Island. (phonearena.com) That matters because Face ID and the selfie camera do not face the same technical constraints. (macrumors.com) Several reports have suggested Apple may hide parts of the TrueDepth system first and leave the camera in a punch-hole or smaller cutout until image quality through the display is good enough for Apple’s standards. ### What would have to happen inside Apple before this ships? (macrumors.com) A hardware change like this would force coordination across display engineering, the TrueDepth and camera teams, industrial design, manufacturing and iOS software. Face ID is not just a sensor module; it is tied to enrollment, attention awareness, Apple Pay, app authentication and recovery flows, so Apple would need the hardware path, calibration process and software behavior to stay consistent with current Face ID performance. That coordination requirement is an inference from how Face ID works and from the nature of the reported hardware changes. (9to5mac.com) Apple has not publicly announced an under-display Face ID product. The next concrete checkpoint is Apple’s next iPhone launch cycle, when any reduction in the visible sensor area would show up first in shipped hardware rather than patents or leaks. (macrumors.com) (phonearena.com)