Apple won’t be adding Touch ID to its Apple Watch lineup any time soon, as it would rather use the required space for other features, says a well-known Chinese leaker.
In a new post on Weibo, Instant Digital shoots down recent speculation that biometric recognition would be coming to Apple’s wearable lineup. The leaker says that the Cupertino-based company remains content to have users unlock their wearables via their paired iPhone.
The addition of Touch ID sensors would result in extra costs, while also taking up precious internal space that could be used for other features, such as increased battery capacity, says the leaker.
Last August it was reported that lines of code discovered by Macworld indicated that Touch ID could arrive on the Apple Watch Series 12 or Apple Watch Ultra 4. The discovery led to suggestions that the Touch ID sensor could be located under the display or potentially integrated into the side button, similar to how the feature is implemented on the iPad mini and iPad Air.
Major redesign changes are not expected for the 2026 Apple Watch lineup, and a design update is not expected by many until 2028 at the earliest. A major redesign could include the addition of noninvasive blood glucose monitoring technology, although that feature is reportedly still in the early development stages.
