Fingerkey uses your iPhone’s TouchID to unlock your Mac

Fingerprint scanners have been around for computer for a while, but anyone who’s ever owned one will tell you that they’re not actually that brilliant. TouchID, on the other hand, has gone down rather well with people, so why can’t you use it to unlock your computer? Someone has thought of that, and they’ve gone and created FingerKey for unlocking Macs with your iPhone.

Provided you have a TouchID-capable iPhone (so the 5S, 6 or 6 Plus), and a Mac with Bluetooth 4.0, you’ll be able to use the app to unlock your Mac without any hassle. All you need it the £1.49 app and the appropriate free software.

It’s very simple, all you need to do is open the app and scan your finger to unlock everything. There’s a Notification Center widget to give you quick access, and provided you can connect to your Mac via Bluetooth you can unlock it from any distance you choose.

It’s not clear whether the app works with the TouchID sensor on the iPad Air 2 and iPad Mini 3 since the app store listing only talks about using an iPhone. Windows and Linux users won’t be left out for long either, because the folks behind the app have said that they are working on making them compatible.

Another planned update will also make it possible to unlock your computer with a pattern, meaning older iPhone users could one day take advantage of it. That may open the doors for an Android version of the Fingerkey as well, but that’s wishful thinking on my part.