AppleInsider Staff
Apple on Monday announced third-party developers will be able to access Touch ID in iOS 8, the company's fingerprint security hardware and software solution that has been limited to first-party apps since its launch last year.
Introduced by SVP Craig Federighi at WWDC, the new access offers app makers a new way to interact with Apple's advanced security hardware. Previously, Touch ID was limited to unlocking an iPhone 5s and making purchases through iTunes and the App Store.
With the newly granted access, apps like 1Password or other titles containing highly sensitive data can call on Touch ID's assets to grant users access without having to remember lengthy passwords. Designed to be tougher to crack than text-based pass codes, Touch ID is now being fully realized to make iOS a safe platform for users.
Keeping things secure, Touch ID never exposes fingerprint data to third parties, keeping it stored safely in the A7's secure enclave. Apple accomplishes this by relying on keychain assets, never directly pinging the locked-down information.
Currently, Touch ID is only available on the iPhone 5s, though Apple is widely expected to expand the capability to all iOS devices through the year.
Andrew Orr
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35 Comments
Time for everyone here to complain about everything and how they didn't do what you think they should have done.
This topic (touchID kit) is exactly what they should have done.
And it portends that every device will eventually have touchID (even the 'consumer' phones/pads). As soon as Ebay or Facebook or Starbucks build it it, everyone will need it.
I bought a base 16 GB iPad Air because I knew I wanted to have Touch ID (love it on my 5S) and 802.11ac.
Looks like i'll be selling it and getting a minimum 64GB Air this year with Touch ID.
As soon as I feel comfortable about seeing more areas where I can use Touch ID I'm going to take
my current password and make it ridiculously long and difficult.
This is awesome. No need for Apple to do the work. Let the outside developers build the payment apps and anything that requires high security.
I hope the new Macs will have Touch ID too.
Oh, wait a minute. Touch ID currently resides in the A7 processor, could this be another piece of the puzzle that new MacBooks will rock an A8?