What biometric unlock does
In the installed iPhone or Android app, biometric unlock lets you sign back in with Face ID or a fingerprint instead of typing your PIN every time. One tap opens your family’s data and signs you in as you, so you land straight in your own account.
Your everyday sign-in everywhere is your personal 6-digit PIN. It works on any device where your family is set up — phone, tablet, or browser — and it travels safely inside your family’s encrypted data, never on a server. Biometrics are simply a faster way past the PIN on a device with the app installed.
Biometrics and your PIN are for everyday convenience. If a device is lost or replaced, your recovery kit (or family passphrase) is what gets your family back in — see Your Recovery Kit (and Other Ways Back In).
How to turn it on
Install the beanies.family app from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with your PIN.
When the app offers biometric unlock, confirm with Face ID or your fingerprint — or turn it on later in Settings → Account & Sign-In.
That’s it — next time you open the app on that device, one tap signs you in.
Only in the installed app
Biometric unlock uses your phone’s secure hardware, which only the installed app can reach — so it isn’t available in a browser. In a browser, you sign in with your PIN.
Older versions of beanies offered biometric sign-in (passkeys) in the browser. That has been retired — a passkey saved in your browser no longer signs you in there. Your PIN replaces it, and biometrics live on in the installed app.
Sharing a device with someone else
Sign-in is always per family member — on a shared tablet, each of you signs in with your own PIN and lands in your own account. More than one of you can set up biometric unlock on the same device; beanies simply asks who is signing in first, and there’s always a “Not you? Switch account” link if the wrong bean comes up.
How it stays private
- Your biometrics never leave your device — Face ID and fingerprint data are handled by your phone’s secure hardware, and beanies.family never sees them.
- The unlock key is kept inside that same secure hardware and only released when your face or fingerprint matches. See How Your Data Is Encrypted.
On a device without Face ID or a fingerprint reader set up — or in any browser — you simply sign in with your PIN instead. Nothing breaks.