Face ID protection for the Google app is in development

With Face ID security turned on, people who have access to your iPhone, such as family members, won’t be able to open the Google app and access your data.

• What’s happening? Google is working on making it possible for you to lock your iOS app with Face ID.
• Why care? This much-needed feature will help bolster your privacy by ensuring that no one can use the Google app on your iPhone unsupervised.
• What to do? Download the Google app from the App Store if you don’t have it.

Soon you will be able to secure the Google app with Face ID

On February 7, 2023, the Google Keyword Official Blog announced new privacy protections coming to the Google app for iPhone and iPad. “Soon, you’ll be able to set up Face ID to protect the privacy of your Google app so that if someone else has your device, they won’t be able to open it and access your data,”it says.

Currently, you can use the Google app privately by enabling incognito mode, which works similar to Chrome’s incognito mode. Enabling this setting will remove the last 15 minutes of saved search history from your Google account.

No activity will be saved to your account if incognito mode is enabled.

How biometric security works

Incognito mode won’t stop anyone with your device from opening the Google app and accessing your saved passwords, logins, browsing history and more. But with Face ID protection turned on, a face scan will be required every time you switch to the Google app. If you don’t have an iPhone with Face ID, this feature will fall back to Touch ID or, if you don’t have one, your device’s passcode.

Google recently updated Chrome for iOS with the ability to secure incognito tabs with Face ID or Touch ID when switching between apps. This feature is also available in the Google app. To learn more about this, check out our guide explaining how to require Face ID authentication for incognito tabs in Chrome for iOS.