Apple iPhone Face ID: What It Is, How It Works, and Tips to Use It Better iPhone Face ID is Apple's biometric face-recognition system, first introduced on the iPhone X in 2017 and now standard across the entire iPhone lineup. This guide covers how Face ID works, every iPhone model that supports it, the most common problems users run into, and practical tips to get the most out of it. Whether you're troubleshooting a unlock failure or shopping for a used iPhone, here's what you need to know.