Google Pixel 6 under-screen fingerprint sensor leaked in screenshot gaffe

Will the Google Pixel 6 feature a fingerprint sensor built into the screen? That looks very likely indeed, if a now-deleted tweet from a senior Android executive is to be believed.

The tweet in question featured the above image. Android senior vice president Hiroshi Lockheimer accompanied it with text explaining that he was trying out wallpapers from his Google Photos gallery, seemingly unaware that right slap bang in the middle of the image is a whacking great graphic indicating an under-display fingerprint sensor.

Whoops!

Someone must have alerted him, however, as the tweet has since been deleted. We have XDA Developers' Mishaal Rahman to thank for screenshotting the tweet before it was wiped.

Rahman notes that the screen resolution of the tweeted image was 1440 x 3200 pixels, making it very likely to be sent from the Pixel 6 Pro.

As phone bezels have got slimmer, fingerprint sensors have become less common, as there's no border in which to house them. Under-display (aka in-display) fingerprint sensors have been used before, but only on fairly niche phones, and the tech hasn't really impressed. The Google Pixel 6 would be the most mainstream implementation by far, and could prove to be a watershed moment for the technology.

Google announced the Pixel 6 earlier this month. We know for sure that it will run on Google's first in-house processor, and a few specs relating to the screen have dropped. But everything else is being kept secret until the full reveal, which is probably due sometime in October.

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