In another redundant edition of his newsletter “Power On” filled with the same news and a lot of “the next several weeks” timelines, Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman says that despite Apple testing under-display Touch ID for a future flagship iPhone, it “won’t make the cut this year.” This means there will not be an under-display sensor or a physical fingerprint scanner on any iPhones this year.

You may recall, he had said this in a previous edition of his newsletter, and as we find ourselves in the throes of this years tech news drought, who am I to judge?

Despite much testing new under-display Touch ID technology that would have allowed Apple to place a sensor under the display on the ‌iPhone‌ to authenticate via fingerprint, Apple’s focus has shifted to an in-display camera for Face ID.

Earlier reports had suggested the company was on track to include ‌Touch ID‌ under the display with the 2021 flagship iPhones. With a global health crisis that required the public to wear face masks, the demand for Touch ID was strong. And while there was no reason offered as to why Apple decided to scrap the idea, it may very well have been they did not feel it was ready.

Since then, Apple has offered a solution to the mask and Face ID dilemma via an iOS 14.5 and watchOS 7.4 update that allowed iPhone users wearing a mask to unlock their iPhone with their Apple Watch.

We’ve said this here before and this is a perfect example of why we say it, while Apple regularly researches and tests new and exciting ideas, many fail to see the public light of day. Rest in spaghetti, it literally wasn’t ready.