Forgotten your Google password? Now you can just take a selfie on any device with a camera

Google is expanding the number of ways to secure your Google account, adding a surprise addition – selfie videos. The industry as a whole is on a mission to replace passwords and passcodes with a wider range of sign-in methods, so now we have the selfie video.

Face has long been used to unlock phones – with Apple popularising the method with Face ID back in 2017 – but using your face to secure your Google Account makes a lot of sense.

That's because you're not going to write it down on a Post-It note stuck to your monitor, it's not going to be dog's birthday backwards or your mother's first pet name. Instead, it's a multi-faceted biometric.

Google isn't the first to turn to offer face verification for account access, it's popular with banking apps like Revolut. But Google says that you'll be able to use your face to get back into your account if you're ever locked out of it. Google describes it as an optional private backup for your password.

That's a great move, because if you've lost that Post-It note and you have no idea what your password is, you'll probably have your face with you to be able to unlock via the camera on any device.

Of course, there are huge privacy fears here, as this means Google is storing your literal face which provides access to your account. But the tech giant emphasises that it can be deleted at any time and it's only used for signing in.

Security assurances

There will be lots of security to keep it protected and if you're locked out, you'll be tasked with recording another video, with movements to prove that it's live, which will be compared to your face on record.

There's an interesting detail in Google's wording too, with the firm saying: "It’s used only for helping you sign in, unless you opt to share it for additional purposes."

There's no word on what those additional purposes are.

Google already loves faces: it was first to bring facial recognition to the Nest Hello in 2018 – as Familiar Faces – so it could announce who was at the door and it still uses that system in Nest cameras now. It also likes to link Google Photos to faces so it's easy to find people.

But I'm still interested in what "additional purposes" there might be. I'd love to be able to sign in with a video selfie on new devices rather than tapping in my randomised password every time.

On my first attempt to access the new service I was told that selfie video was not available for my account, so it's not exactly clear how this will roll out.