Changes to mobile passcodes for biometric login

For the past several years, we’ve provided a simple and convenient way for our customers to protect sensitive information on their users’ devices with our mobile passcode feature. However, as technology advances and customer expectations evolve, so must the security standards of our mobile platform.

Biometric login

One of the most requested feature enhancements we receive for the xMatters mobile app is the ability to log in using biometrics, such as a fingerprint or facial recognition. Logging in this way is easier and saves time, but more importantly, it strengthens the security of the authentication process by ensuring a higher degree of certainty of a user’s identity.

We first introduced biometric login for the xMatters iOS app in our Defender release, allowing users to log in with their fingerprint or face ID instead of their 4-digit passcode. We're currently in the process of implementing biometric login on our Android platform.

To ensure that we adhere to industry-leading practices set by Google and Apple, we’re changing how our mobile passcode feature works.

Device-level passcode required

With the release of biometric login capabilities to Android, the mobile passcode feature will require users to set up a screen lock for their device. To log into the Android app, users can use the biometric authentication method their device supports (fingerprint or face unlock), or their device-level PIN. Although this isn’t the current behavior of our iOS platform, we’ll soon be updating the xMatters iOS app to also support this best practice.

Fortunately, many mobile users already choose to secure their devices with a screen lock or passcode. And if not, it’s quick and easy to set up - here’s where you can find instructions for Android and iOS:

• Android: Set screen lock on an Android Device
• iOS: Set a passcode on iPhone

Availability

• Android: We'll be releasing biometric login for Android in May/June 2020. At this time, the Android app will prompt users to set a screen lock for their device (if they don't have one already) and give them the option to use fingerprint or face unlock to confirm their identity when logging in, or alternatively use their device PIN.
• iOS: Biometric login is currently available for our iOS app and we'll be updating the app to require a device-level passcode in the future (February 2023).

Before we release these updates to our mobile passocde feature, we'll be reaching out to customers that are affected by this change, to make sure they're prepared and that the transition goes as smoothly as possible.