Unlock with your face

You can set your phone to unlock when it recognizes your face.

Whenever you turn on or wake the phone, it will search for your face and unlock when it recognizes you. Keep in mind that someone who looks similar to you could unlock the phone.

Set up face matching

  1. Make sure you have set a screen lock on the phone.
  2. Go to Settings.

  3. Touch Security > Smart Lock.

    If you don't see Smart Lock, try the following:

    • Update Google Play services. In the Google Search widget on your home screen, search for “Google Play services”, then touch the app to open it.
    • Go to Settings > Security > Trust agents and enable Smart Lock.
  4. Unlock your phone, then touch Trusted face.
  5. Follow the onscreen instructions. Be sure to frame your entire face with the outline.

Unlock your phone

  1. Show your face to the lock screen.

    appears when the phone is looking for your face. When it recognizes you, it unlocks and displays .

  2. Swipe up.

If it doesn't recognize you, it stays locked and displays one of these icons.

IconHow to unlock
Use your password, PIN, or pattern
Use the fingerprint sensor

Turn off face matching

  1. Go to Settings.
  2. Touch Security > Smart Lock.
  3. Unlock your phone, then touch Trusted face.
  4. Touch Remove trusted face.

The phone will no longer recognize your face, and the feature is turned off. To turn it on again, set up a new trusted face.

Fix a problem

If you're having trouble getting the phone to recognize your face:

  1. Go to Settings.

  2. Touch Security > Smart Lock.

  3. Unlock your phone, then touch Trusted face.
  4. Touch Improve face matching.
  5. Follow the onscreen instructions.