Google quietly removes support for passcodes, Touch ID, and Face ID from several iPhone apps

Google has silently updated several iOS apps, including Drive, Docs, Sheets, and Slides, to remove support for passcodes, Touch ID, and Face ID. While the company is still being very coy about the reasons for this decision, several users have confirmed on the company's Google product forums that advanced lock options are no longer available in these apps.

Users said that Google iOS products have a "Password" section under Settings, which is where users are able to set up passcodes and touch ID. Now when you enter the password, it will say "Passcode lock is no longer available in Google Drive, Docs, Sheets, or Slides. If you haven't already protected your device using Settings > Touch ID & Passcode.

It is speculated that the reason for this silent update may be that Apple provides a file application in iOS 11 that can access and manage multiple cloud storage services, including OneDrive, Dropbox, and Google Drive. However, when using passwords or different authentication systems, users cannot access the cloud storage service through this file application. Users will get an error message "Files cannot be used with a password." It is believed that this is the reason why Google launched this silent update.

What’s even more surprising is that Google didn’t provide any explanation for this silent update, even though it clearly affected a large number of users.