Keeping up the trend of emerging technologies trickling down from the iPhone line to the iPad range, Apple will incorporate Face ID into an upcoming iPad, a developer’s discovery suggests.
On his Twitter page, well-known developer Steve Troughton-Smith has posted a screenshot of what looks like an iPad-optimized interface for AvatarKit. This software framework enables the iPhone X’s Animoji feature, which itself relies on a TrueDepth camera to track facial movements.
New in iOS 12: AvatarKit comes to iPad. Still requires a TrueDepth camera to do face tracking, though, i.e. an iPad with Face ID pic.twitter.com/9TvP2vsP6X
— Steve Troughton-Smith (@stroughtonsmith) July 3, 2018
Indeed, Troughton-Smith made that very point when showing the revelatory screenshot captured in the beta release of iOS 12. The iPad version of that release already includes tweaked gestures akin to those necessitated by the iPhone X with its absence of a physical Home button.
Hence, there is reason to believe that a future iPad could lose that button, too – and that tablet could be the new high-end iPad Pro already heavily rumored. Reports suggest that the device will have slimmer bezels allowing for a display measuring roughly 11 inches.
Bloomberg and TF International Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, both reliable sources of news about upcoming Apple products, have hinted that this new iPad could be released around this September. That would be in line with roughly when iOS 12 should get its public release.