Malcolm Owen
The Apple Watch could be used to perform more authentication for the Mac in macOS 10.15, as it is thought the operating system update will expand the usage of the wearable device to authenticate users for more tasks than just unlocking the Mac without entering a password.
Since the introduction of macOS Sierra, the Apple Watch had the ability to unlock a Mac when it is work by the user and positioned nearby to the device. As a worn piece of biometric security, it was able to be used as a security token and to automatically unlock the Mac, saving users from authenticating manually each time.
The Apple Watch can also be used to authenticate an Apple Pay transaction on a Mac, using the double-click action similar to an in-store payment, and can also be used instead of a Touch ID authentication for the payment with some MacBook models.
For the next major release of macOS, the functionality may be expanded to allow the Apple Watch to be used as authentication for a wider selection of tasks. Sources speaking to 9To5Mac allegedly familiar with the development of macOS did not mention what kind of items could use the presence of an Apple Watch as authentication, but it is likely to be able to cover practically any instance where Touch ID would be an acceptable authentication measure.
Due to the potential for some transactions to not be secure enough to automatically be authorized by the existence of an Apple Watch, it is plausible a new user interface element will be introduced to watchOS to authorize transactions from the Apple Watch display.
If Apple is to introduce expanded Apple Watch-based authentication, it is likely the company will show off the feature alongside other new functions at the Worldwide Developers Conference, which will start from June 3rd. Current speculation has Apple introducing standalone Music, Podcasts, and TV apps in macOS, as it separates out some of the functions of iTunes.
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21 Comments
I use the unlock feature every day (except Mondays - I guess there's some kind of time limit) Love not having to type in my password all the time.
Also I paid for Mexican food the other day on my Mac from my Watch Series 0. Pretty cool. More Watch integration will be pretty sweet.
Something else the WinDroid world can't touch.Edit - I guess the payment functionality might theoretically be possible on certain devices, but I'd like to see someone do it on 5S/series 0 vintage devices.
All of those words, and not a single new "feature" announced/speculated. Seems like a waste of an article.
I guess it would be nice if I didn’t have to type my password in to, say, open Keychain or install software.
My hopes aren’t that high as unlocking my Mac rarely works for me. It happens so infrequently that I had forgotten it’s a feature. It went from rarely to working to working frequently when I upgraded my Watch from a Series 3 to a Series 4 but slowly started working less and less frequently.
It’s the same story with my AirPods. They used to connect all the time and then I gradually had issues. They won’t connect to my Mac at all anymore. Restarts don’t help and I even reset the AirPods, nothing.
I wonder if the issues for the AirPods and unlocking with Apple Watch are related.
ANY new features for the Apple Watch Series 4 would be a welcome addition IMO. Great device...changed the way I think about watches in general.
I’ve had mixed results using my watch to unlock my computers. Half the time on my desktop it either fails or it’s just slow for some reason and it’s quicker & easier to type in my password. Ditto my laptop, and since my laptop has touchID I just use that rather than wait to see if my watch would work. TouchID is awesome when combined with keychain and 1Password. It’d be nice for the watch to do the same thing with my desktop, but given my experience it wouldn’t help much.