Questions about using Face ID when you are blind

You might find this podcast helpful: Setting Up Face ID on the iPhone X with VoiceOver

As for your concerns, they are valid and something that was raised when Face ID was first introduced. However, I'm not aware of anybody actually experiencing this during the 3+ years since. Depending upon your circumstances, you can setup Face ID so that you need to be looking at the screen for it to work )this feature is called “attention aware”). It is disabled by default if iOS detects that VoiceOver is enabled, but you can enable it afterwards. This gives you an extra later of protection against the scenario you describe.

If you are still concerned that this is a real risk to you, then do not use Face ID, and simply use a passcode. Obviously you take a big hit on user experience and convenience here, but it's an option.

If you find yourself in a situation where you want to temporarily protect yourself against somebody doing this, just ask Siri from the Lock Screen “whose phone is this?”. This will require the passcode to be entered the next time that somebody attempts to unlock the phone. You can do the same with a combination of button presses, but this Siri trick is the simplest option.

Face ID makes a noise when unlocking the phone. Also if speech is turned on when using voice over, VoiceOver indicates that the phone is being unlocked.

I would without question enable your iPhone requiring attention. If you do this, your iPhone will only unlock if it detects your eyes are wide and looking directly at it. As a person with severely restricted vision, I feel that typically I don't use it often so I end up half-closing my eyes, so this feels natural now. Thus it requires me that little bit more effort to unlock my phone, making it all the more unlikely that someone else will forcefully unlock it with my face because my face isn't typically in the posture that it requires. Even then, it's super fast and responsive. I can intuit when my phone is going to need FaceID for authentication, ready my posture just before, and have it unlock pretty much immediately, without fail.

As a touch ID fan who recently purchased an iPhone 13 I would agree that there's nothing to fear from Face ID. However, you quite possibly will have to accept a bit of a hit in terms of efficiency. For me, Face ID works probably 7 times out of 10 (compared with Touch ID which worked 999 times out of 1000). The rest of the time you will need to enter your passcode. This, incidentally, is with attention awareness disabled in my case. I imagine I would have to reduce that success rate somewhat if I switched that feature on. I have never done so because I have no control over whether my eyes are open or closed. When Face ID works it's great and when it doesn't it's no disaster. However, it's not ideal and I hope the iPhone 14 will give us Touch ID back.

With face ID the only problem I have is if I'm lying down, my fault, or i have a mask on. apple will fix this in 15.4 and other then calling 911 by accident twice, nothing is wrong with face ID I'm curious if the last comment would try attention awareness and just see if they had any more success. Yes, I know you can't control your eyes but it's more a muscle memory thing. On phone on front of face, vibrate, on with life.

On with life? if you're going to make a piquante remark like that make sure it's accurate elsewise it loses its piquancy, as in this case. Face ID has not caused me to put my life on hold. It continues a la Bertie Wooster as in the golden age of Touch ID. I agree with you there's nothing wrong with Face ID. However, it's less efficient - you've just confirmed as much with your two use case examples to say nothing of your calls to the emergency services. My comment above goes that far and no further. When I have a moment I will experiment with attention aware. I'm still a touch ID fan though.

I never registered a face with my iPad Pro. I almost always keep it in a closed case and use it with a Bluetooth keyboard. To unlock it, I just enter my passcode. In its case, it makes a nice keyboard tray, and on those occasional days when I actually need the screen, either to get an eyeball on something or to show an image to someone, I just open the case and the screen is there and ready to use.

Have the iPad 9 and 12 pro. It is so easy with phone but with iPad 9 have to do it 2 times. Finger has to be clean and no moist finger.

it work just like that. I'm blind and so is many of my student who are using Face ID and they have no problem what so ever. so you can be sure that we can use the Face ID with no issue at all not even with setting up.

I assigned a custom gesture for the home screen and app switcher. Now I am so used to face ID, I don't miss the home button. And after assigning my custom gestures, all this did not take long to get used to.