iOS 14 - How to unlock an iPhone by voice

iPhone, depending on the model you have, can be unlocked using Face ID or Touch ID and of course by entering the password. However, few people know that there is one more method to unlock an iPhone - by voice.

At the beginning, I am in a hurry to explain that unlocking an iPhone with your voice has nothing to do with biometrics and can negatively affect the security of your phone, so you should use this feature with caution.

Due to the lack of Polish Siri, controlling the iPhone using voice commands by Polish users of this iDevice is not very popular. The group of people who use their iPhones in this way is limited almost exclusively to people with some degree of disability, for whom it is the only possibility to use the phone. The average user is not even aware that iOS can be fully operated by voice.

Of course, Siri doesn't have enough permissions to unlock the phone. However, another function hidden in the Accessibility menu - Voice control will come to our aid. By using a simple trick, Voice Control allows you to unlock your iPhone without using Face ID or Touch ID or physically typing the password.

How does it work in practice? Just record a sequence of touching points on the screen and play it back when the keypad is displayed on the lock screen.

Step 1 - turn on voice control

Launch the Settings app and select Accessibility. On the Voice Control tab, tap Set Up Voice Control. The Voice Control tutorial displays. On the first screen, tap Next, on the second screen, tap Done. When you return to the Voice Control tab, Voice Control will appear at the top and the slider will move to the right.

Step 2 - Create an iPhone unlock command

On the Voice Control tab, select Customize Commands, then Create New Command. In the Phrase field, enter the command that will be responsible for unlocking the phone.

Remember two things: the command must be in English and it cannot be easily guessed by an outsider. Think of it as a magic spell. For safety reasons, it is best if it is an illogical cluster of words or a short sentence, for example: "open - the dog - eleven" or "the boy has opened the wardrobe".

Then click on Action.

Select Start Custom Gesture from the list. A gray box will appear on the screen. Now your job is to tap the screen exactly in the places and in the same order you do when manually unlocking your iPhone by typing your password.

Tip: This is by far the most difficult part of the setup and you may need to practice and enter the password a few or several times first. You can make your task easier in several ways. For example, leave traces on the display with a lightly sweaty finger, draw a template on paper or take someone else's iPhone, display the lock screen, and then compare it to the screen to precisely locate where to tap when recording a gesture. With a four- or six-character numeric password, it's not that difficult. In the case of an alphanumeric password, it may take much longer to record the gesture.

After recording the tap sequence, press the Save button and exit the Settings app.

Step 3 - Unlock iPhone with your voice

First, make sure voice control is active. You will recognize it by the microphone icon on the blue background visible in the upper part of the screen. Wake up the phone and bring up the password keyboard on the screen. Then say your phrase. After about a second, gray dots should appear on the screen, imitating screen touches. Once the tap sequence is complete, your iPhone should be unlocked and you'll see a small notification at the top of the screen telling you that the command was successful.

Remember: your phone can be unlocked by anyone who says the "magic phrase". This is not a biometric security feature, and iPhone does not distinguish between you or someone else speaking the command.

How to unlock an iPhone with your voice