The iPhone 5S will reportedly support fingerprint recognition. A bundle in the Accessibility section of iOS references how to identify a user by their fingerprint. The description states that a user can place their thumb on the home button of a device and a string will recognize the identity of that person. This may potentially allow users to unlock their phone by simply placing their thumbprint on the phone.
Although the software seems to be complete some analysts believe biometric IDs to be unreliable. The biometric addition has not been confirmed for security purposes, but it does offer exciting new possibilities. This software could potentially be used to read fingerprints for secure payments and authentication. Biometric scanning could also allow multiple users of a single iOS device to load their profiles by scanning their respective fingerprints.
The fingerprint sensor has skeptics worried that the security measures may not be enough unless it is combined with some other form of security. However, this may not necessarily be the case if iCloud keychain converts and safeguards all user passwords. Although the software offers some interesting possibilities it may still be quite some time before fingerprint recognition is available in Apple products.
The new iPhone may be released sometime before the holidays and is also supposed to include a better camera, processor and new voice-control features.