Touch ID

Touch ID is a fingerprint recognition feature, designed and released by Apple Inc., and is currently available on iPhones since iPhone 5S, as well as iPads since iPad Air 2 and the MacBook Pro. In 2015, Apple introduced the faster second generation Touch ID beginning with the iPhone 6S, and later to the Macbook Pro in 2016.

Touch ID allows users to unlock Apple devices, make purchases in the various Apple digital media stores (the iTunes Store, the App Store, and the iBookstore), and authenticate Apple Pay online or in apps. On announcing the feature, Apple stated that fingerprint information is stored locally in a secure enclave on the Apple A7 and later chips, and is not stored in the cloud, making it very difficult for external access.

The first mobile phone with a fingerprint scanner was the Toshiba G500 and G900 in 2007. In 2012, Apple acquired AuthenTec, a company focused on fingerprint reading and identification management software, for $356 million. The acquisition led commentators to expect a fingerprint reading feature. Following leaks and speculation in early September, the iPhone 5S was unveiled on September 10, 2013, was the first phone on a major US carrier since the Atrix to feature the technology. Apple's Vice President of Marketing, Phil Schiller, announced the feature at Apple's iPhone media event and spent several minutes (the last major portion of the conference) discussing the feature.

Following Apple's introduction in 2013, other smartphone makers included fingerprint scanning in their high-end phones during 2014 and 2015, starting with the Samsung Galaxy S5. Beginning with Android 6.0 (Android Marshmallow, released October 2015) scanner support is integrated into the operating system like Touch ID is in iOS.

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