iOS 16 lets Apple users bypass CAPTCHA

Captcha with squiggly letters
Logging in to websites and apps, as well as creating new accounts, is becoming a more straightforward process with the release of iOS 16 thanks to its support for automatic verification of CAPTCHAs.

 

What is CAPTCHA?

CAPTCHA, stands for the Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart, is something that many of us encounter daily when accessing websites and applications. Sometimes you have to read and type in a warped sample of text, sometimes you’re instructed to select “every photo containing a boat,” or “every photo containing traffic lights.” Either way, the idea is that only humans have the pattern-recognition skills needed to pass the test. The problem is that such CAPTCHA prompts can be difficult to make out and are inaccessible to someone using a screen reader.

Automatic Verification

The good news is that Apple is introducing a new feature called Automatic Verification for the iPhones, iPads, and Mac to let users bypass CAPTCHAs in supported apps and websites. The new version of Apple’s software for iPhones and iPads will automatically and privately verify your device and account. Apple device’s running iOS 16, iPadOS 16 and MacOS Ventura will be the first to receive automatic verification.

Apple’s system verifies that the device and Apple ID account are in good standing and presents what is called a Private Access Token to the app or website.

How to bypass CAPTCHAs

To bypass CAPTCHA verification on an iPhone head to Setting>Apple ID>Password & Security> then enable Automatic Verification.

In summary, Automatic Verification of CAPTCHAs makes a big impact for those with accessibility needs as this feature will let users into their account without having to solve a puzzle if they have a visual or hearing impairment.