Some users have reported a strange problem: after unlocking the smartphone the FaceID, a ghost keyboard appears. What's happening
A strange and annoying bug plagues iPhones running iOS 11, 12 and 13: the phantom keyboard. The news came out of an ongoing discussion on Reddit, where a user posted a video showing the problem.
In no time at all, this user discovered that he's by no means the only one with this problem, but that it's a fairly widespread bug. From reading the various messages left on Reddit, then, it seems that the problem is in the operating system because it affects several models of Apple smartphones, already for quite some time. Some users have turned to the technical support that, however, has not offered any solution to this bug. A bug, by the way, quite old since some users claim to see it as early as iOS 11 and to have carried it around until the latest iOS 13.3 without being able to solve it.
Iphone bug: what happens and why
The bug we're talking about is very strange: after an unlock with Face ID, which occurs without problems, if the user touches the bottom of the iPhone screen are displayed letters. These letters, in reality, are those of the keyboard: same graphics, same position. The bug, in fact, appears when the user has set a custom alphanumeric password (i.e. with numbers and letters) in addition to Face ID. But the keyboard is not there: the one that appears only if you tap the screen is a kind of ghost keyboard. Discussion on Reddit shows that the problem is persistent: it happens about 70% of the times you unlock the screen with Face ID, especially if you don't bring your face close to the screen immediately.
Apple's response
Because it's a bug related to unlocking the phone, a user with this problem contacted Apple describing the strange behavior of his iPhone as a security-related bug. But Apple responded that it is not a security-related bug and offered no solution. What's even stranger, though, is that even iPhone 7 users, which doesn't have Face ID unlocking, have complained of the exact same problem after setting an alphanumeric password.
This could lead users, to avoid running into the bug, to not choose this type of password and prefer unlocking with a simple PIN. Which is, however, a much less secure method of protecting a smartphone. Perhaps, then, Apple would do well to consider the phantom keyboard as a security-related bug and, consequently, give it the priority it deserves.