Face ID has always been very low-friction and it uses this to be pretty aggressive about unlocking. The raise-to-wake phones unlock when you pick them up with your face in view, so it’s almost always unlocked before I even start the camera.

False alarm.

The only thing I might mention is that I keep my phone on lockdown mode. I also note i cannot "swipe" the camera open. I must long press the camera button on the lower right of the lock screen.

edit 2: I see now, this is an issue. While the phone is locked and without face ID present you can open the camera and while the normal camera reel button in the lower left does say "No photos or videos" when pressed, but it also reveals a new photo reel button at the top right which indeed does allow people to view photos on a locked device.

edit 3: now I can't get it to show me photos or videos anymore. I think it may have been detecting my face previously even though I was pointing the camera away from me.

Except if they have access to your face, and if you have gone in and set the Photos app to require Face ID.

I do believe the more private setting used to be the default, and should be the default.

I’ve noticed it kicks in Face ID right away when I try this on my own phone, so I have access to my photos. But if I do this from locked and cover the island/sensor it won’t work. I’m on iOS 26.5.

To test, hold the phone at an angle and push the sleep switch to wake it. You’ll see a lock icon. Look at the phone with no other actions and you’ll see the lock icon disappear.

I'm not doing the action to unlock my phone, though, I'm opening the camera with my face in front of it. Two different gestures. But the phone is taking it as an unlock.

It's now configurable to require Face ID to view your Photos app. It used to be a default that you had to use Face ID, instead of the other way around. And I think that it should be private by default.

It's now configurable to require Face ID to view your Photos app. It used to be a default that you had to use Face ID, instead of the other way around. And I think that it should be private by default.

It's now configurable to require Face ID to view your Photos app. It used to be a default that you had to use Face ID, instead of the other way around. And I think that it should be private by default.

If I do that, I don't see the past photos. I think that behavior used to be default, and I think it should be again.

From the lock screen, I can take a picture (as is normal), but it only shows the camera roll from that particular session. It doesn’t show me my saved camera roll, and if I close the camera app and reopen it, I don’t see the photos just taken. I need to login and go the the full camera roll.

Edit to correct iOS version

1. Enable Face ID.
2. Do not unlock the phone. Only swipe to open the camera. Do this with your face visible to the front-facing camera.
3. Check your camera roll.

Unlocking the camera did not unlock access to past pictures in prior versions of iOS.