Native iOS features

Build an iPhone app with Face ID

Describe your app to Borel and say what Face ID should protect. Borel writes it in Swift with Apple's LocalAuthentication framework, so the app unlocks with a glance and falls back to the iPhone's passcode wherever Face ID isn't available. You never write a line of code, and the app is yours to keep.

Ideas

What you can build with Face ID

A few apps people make with it. Describe yours in your own words.

  • A private diary

    Entries stay locked until Face ID sees it's you.

  • A notes vault

    The notes you'd rather keep to yourself, opened with a glance.

  • A spending tracker

    Balances and purchases hidden from anyone who picks up your phone.

  • A family app's settings

    Lock the grown-up screens so only you can change them.

Try it

A prompt to start from

Copy it, or start with it and change it to fit your idea.

The prompt
“A private diary that opens with Face ID. Each entry has a date, a mood and a few lines of text, and the diary locks again when I leave the app.”

From words to your iPhone

Three steps, no code

  • 1

    Describe it

    Say what the app does in plain words, or start from the prompt above. No code, and no Mac.

  • 2

    Watch it build

    Borel writes the Swift, compiles it with Xcode on its own Mac and opens it in the iOS Simulator, streamed into your browser.

  • 3

    Put it on your iPhone

    Borel Companion installs it over a cable the first time, then over Wi-Fi, and while it runs it puts each new version on by itself.

How Borel handles it

Written in Swift, with Apple's own frameworks

What Borel takes care of for you, so the feature works the way iPhone owners expect.

  • Apple's own Face ID

    The app asks LocalAuthentication whether it's you. Your face never leaves the iPhone: the app only learns whether the check passed.

  • The passcode as a backup

    If Face ID doesn't recognise you, the iPhone's passcode opens the app instead, and a phone with neither still lets you in.

  • The permission, explained

    iOS asks people before an app uses Face ID, with a sentence Borel writes for your app, filled in for you if it's ever missing.

Face ID needs a real face, so you feel it on your iPhone with Borel Companion. Everything else in the app runs in the iOS Simulator in your browser while you build.

Your Apple ID

Works with a free Apple ID

Yes. Borel Companion puts the app on your own iPhone with a free Apple ID, which keeps up to 3 of your apps there, and Companion renews them every 7 days for you.

Frequently asked questions

No. Describe the app in plain words, or pick Face ID from Device in the chat's + menu. Borel writes the Swift and builds it with Xcode on its own Mac.

The iPhone's passcode opens the app instead, so you're never locked out of your own app.

Yes. The same check uses Touch ID on iPhones that have it, and the passcode on any iPhone.

No. Face ID runs inside the iPhone, and the app only learns whether the check passed.

Yes. Ask for it in the chat, for example “lock the app with Face ID”, and Borel adds it to the app you have.

Build your app with Face ID

Start from the prompt above, change it to fit your idea, and Borel builds it while you watch.