OnePlus 5T Face Unlock hack: How to make it work in the dark

Since its launch, the OnePlus 5T is getting its fair share of positive and negative criticisms. The mid-life upgrade to the OnePlus 5 improves with a massive 6-inch 18:9 display and a new low light-focused rear camera setup. However, there has been one more feature mentioned in the spec sheet that draws everyone’s curiosity — Face Unlock.

With the growing interest of facial recognition for biometric verification on smartphones, OnePlus did their own take on this new system without involving any additional hardware upgrades, like the iPhone X’s FaceID. The Face Unlock works using clever algorithms to provide the maximum security possible, using the front camera alone, despite OnePlus themselves claiming it to be imperfect. This is why the OnePlus 5T still comes with a fingerprint scanner. However, we have already seen in several demonstration videos that Face Unlock is extremely fast in most lighting conditions.

We say ‘most lighting conditions’ because the 16MP front camera has to rely on ‘visible spectrum of light’ to authorise access to the phone. Therefore, in inadequately lit conditions, the Face Unlock struggles heavily to function in the same way that it does in well-lit conditions. This sounds disappointing, particularly if you got the OnePlus 5T as a cheaper alternative to the iPhone X. However, fret not as we have a solution.

It turns out that there is a simple hack to use the Face Unlock in dark conditions. Consider the following points:

1) Face Unlock requires the selfie camera to receive a generous amount of light. The display of the OnePlus 5T also radiates light and it is all you need to get it functioning.

2) To use it in dark conditions, turn off the auto brightness from display settings. Then make sure that the brightness level is set to at least 80 percent, although 100 percent would be better.

3) The next step is to select a wallpaper for the lock screen with lighter shades of colours. The default blue-white wallpaper on the OnePlus 5T is one great example and can be used as your lock screen wallpaper.

4) Once you have set the lock screen wallpaper, all you need to do is wait for the dark. All you need to do is press the power button and bring the phone closer to your face, which will radiate your face enough for the camera to see all the necessary facial information and unlock the phone for you.

We agree that this may not be a great system-level hack that you were expecting. However, it is a makeshift method to enjoy iPhone X’s FaceID-like functionality on your OnePlus 5T, which is half the price of the Apple flagship. Meanwhile, OnePlus is also working on the Face Unlock and will incorporate those improvements into further updates.

(source)