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A surprisingly long list of body parts will open a iPhone Touch ID sensor

Published Jul 28th, 2016 12:25PM EDT
Touch ID iPhone
Image: Apple

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What do your nose, the heel of your foot and left nipple all have in common? Well, according to this Reddit thread, they will all work on an Apple Touch ID sensor. The same can’t be said for right nipples, unfortunately.

Highly reputable Reddit source “A_Gigantic_Potato” published his “comprehensive” list of different body parts that will work with a Touch ID sensor. For a part that was only meant to recognise fingerprints, it turns out that the Touch ID sensor is surprisingly versatile.

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Here’s the complete list of body parts Mr Potato has tested thus far:

Parts that do work:

  • Fingers
  • Palm of hand
  • Big toe
  • Index(?) toe
  • Pinky toe
  • “Palm” of foot
  • Nose (very difficult)
  • Back of index finger (very difficult)
  • Heel of foot (works better than thumb imo)
  • Left nipple (right refuses to cooperate)

Parts that do not work:

  • Forearm
  • Knee
  • That round bit of your ankle
  • Belly
  • Earlobes
  • Eyelid
  • Thigh
  • Right and left Testicle
  • Tip of Penis (underside)
  • Tip of Penis (top side, although it’s interesting to note that this generated the best results although the results seemed to deteriorate and got more errors as it got flaccid)

I’ve conducted some spot testing with my own iPhone, and I can vouch for the validity of the results on big toe and that round bit of your ankle. HR regulations prevent me from conducting a complete test at my desk.

Interestingly, the fingerprint sensor on a Galaxy S7 doesn’t fare nearly as well. No matter which angle I used, I couldn’t get it to recognise my big toe. Bug or feature?

Chris Mills
Chris Mills News Editor

Chris Mills has been a news editor and writer for over 15 years, starting at Future Publishing, Gawker Media, and then BGR. He studied at McGill University in Quebec, Canada.