In summary:
- Macworld reports that leaker Instant Digital debunks rumors about Touch ID coming to Apple Watch, citing increased costs and reduced battery space as key concerns.
- Despite previous code discoveries suggesting biometric authentication for 2026 models, Apple appears to prioritize battery capacity and advanced health sensors over fingerprint recognition.
- The company continues relying on phone-based unlocking for wearables rather than integrating Touch ID into future Apple Watch designs.
The rumored arrival of fingerprint recognition on the Apple Watch may have to wait, if a new report from a prolific leaker is accurate. In fact the leaker’s latest public comment strongly hints that it might never happen at all.
In a post to Weibo on Monday, the leaker known as Instant Digital poured scorn on the theory that Touch ID will feature on the new Apple Watch models coming later this year: “The current rumors about adding biometric authentication to Apple Watch and other wearable devices are completely false,” they write (via Google Translate). “Apple’s current strategy is still to have users unlock their devices via their phones.”
For full disclosure, those “current rumors” actually originated here on Macworld. Last August our eagle-eyed expert Felipe Esposito found that Apple developer code for what was evidently the 2026 Apple Watch models mentioned “AppleMesa,” an internal codename for Touch ID. That term does not appear in the code for any current or previous Apple Watches, and strongly suggested that Apple was looking into the possibility of adding fingerprint recognition to what is now its next generation of smartwatches.
Instant Digital doesn’t dispute the presence of the telltale references in the code, but does offer a rationale for why Touch ID isn’t happening. The issue is that Apple doesn’t want to accept the compromises that the fingerprint sensor would require (whether it’s under the display or concealed in the Digital Crown), and would rather devote its resources to increasing the capacity of the battery and adding more advanced health sensors.
“Integrating fingerprint sensors would only increase costs for now and directly reduce battery space, which is extremely uneconomical from a product planning perspective,” the leaker writes.
Putting the two factors together, it seems plausible that Apple has explored the idea of Touch ID on the watch but has concluded that it doesn’t make sense. It certainly wouldn’t be the first time such a thing happened; Steve Jobs famously said that “Innovation is saying no to 1,000 things.” Of the other products referenced or hinted at in the code we looked at last August, only the new Studio Display has actually launched. There’s still no sign of either the 5G MacBook Pro or the M4 Ultra chip, while the Mac Pro, which the M4 Ultra was expected to appear in, has been discontinued.
That doesn’t mean the products weren’t in development when we found those clues, nor does it mean they won’t appear in the future (with the exception of the Mac Pro). It just means Apple sometimes changes its mind, or delays or cancels projects which seemed promising at an early stage of development.
So fingerprint recognition may have been pushed back to the 2027 Apple Watch refresh, or it may not be practical for it to happen at all. But it is also possible that Instant Digital is mistaken. The account posts a lot of leaks to social media but doesn’t have much of a track record to speak of, and doesn’t provide a source for this latest claim.
To find out more about what we expect later this year, check out our 2026 Apple Watch preview.
Author: David Price, Editor, Macworld
David has been writing about technology for well over two decades, and got on board the Apple hype train when covering the original iPhone launch in 2007. He is an enthusiastic Apple Watch evangelist and feels that the HomePod is misunderstood.