Google has added a new way to get back into your account if you forget your password or lose your phone: recording a short selfie video. The feature went live on Thursday and is rolling out globally in phases to eligible personal Google accounts.
Setup happens on your device’s camera, either your phone’s front camera or a webcam on a computer. You follow a few guided prompts to turn or tilt your head so the system captures your face from multiple angles. If you’re on a PC without a camera, you can do the setup with your phone instead. That clip gets encrypted and saved to your account.
If you get locked out later, you record a fresh video and Google matches it against the saved one, said the company last week. The head movements are the key part, since they act as a liveness check meant to rule out someone holding up a photo or playing a pre-recorded clip.
Google says the system uses multiple layers of security to block impersonation attempts including deepfakes, on top of its usual checks for suspicious sign-in activity. On the privacy side, the company says your selfie video is only used for signing in unless you opt in to other uses, it’s stored securely even when it isn’t being used, and you can delete it from your Google Account at any time.
Now, not everyone gets this selfie sign-in feature, as it’s not available for Google Workspace accounts, child accounts, or anyone enrolled in the Advanced Protection Program.
You can check whether your account is eligible and set it up at g.co/signin-selfie, or find it under Security and sign-in in your Google Account settings. Hey, Google already knows everything about you–why not just throw in your face while you’re at it?
We checked the link and we got the message, “selfie for sign-in unavailable,” and “selfie isn’t available as a sign-in option for this account.” I can see this can be useful if you actually lose your smartphone and you’re travelling and need to sign back into your Google account that has a complex password. Who’s going to enroll their selfie into this feature?
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