Capacitor Native Biometric

Use biometrics confirm device owner presence or authenticate users. A couple of methods are provided to handle user credentials. These are securely stored using Keychain (iOS) and Keystore (Android).

Installation (Only supports Capacitor 3 and 4)

• npm i capacitor-native-biometric

Usage

import { NativeBiometric } from "capacitor-native-biometric";

async performBiometricVerificatin(){
  const result = await NativeBiometric.isAvailable();

  if(!result.isAvailable) return;

  const isFaceID = result.biometryType == BiometryType.FACE_ID;

  const verified = await NativeBiometric.verifyIdentity({
    reason: "For easy log in",
    title: "Log in",
    subtitle: "Maybe add subtitle here?",
    description: "Maybe a description too?",
  })
    .then(() => true)
    .catch(() => false);

  if(!verified) return;

  const credentials = await NativeBiometric.getCredentials({
    server: "www.example.com",
  });
}

// Save user's credentials
NativeBiometric.setCredentials({
  username: "username",
  password: "password",
  server: "www.example.com",
}).then();

// Delete user's credentials
NativeBiometric.deleteCredentials({
  server: "www.example.com",
}).then();

Methods

Method	Default	Type	Description
isAvailable(options?: IsAvailableOptions)		Promise<AvailableResult>	Gets available biometrics
verifyIdentity(options?: BiometricOptions)		Promise<void>	Shows biometric prompt
setCredentials(options: SetCredentialOptions)		Promise<void>	Securely stores user's credentials in Keychain (iOS) or encypts them using Keystore (Android)
getCredentials(options: GetCredentialOptions)		Promise<Credentials>	Retrieves user's credentials if any
deleteCredentials(options: DeleteCredentialOptions)		Promise<void>	Removes user's credentials if any

Interfaces

IsAvailableOptions

Properties	Default	Type	Description
useFallback?		boolean	Specifies if the device should fallback to using passcode authentication.

AvailableResult

Properties	Default	Type	Description
isAvailable		boolean	Specifies if the devices has biometric enrollment
biometryType		BiometryType	Specifies the available biometric hardware on the device
errorCode?		number	Biometric Auth Error Code

BiometryType - enum

Properties	Description
NONE	There is no biometry available
TOUCH_ID	TouchID is available (iOS)
FACE_ID	FaceID is available (iOS)
FINGERPRINT	Fingerprint is available (Android)
FACE_AUTHENTICATION	Face Authentication is available (Android)
IRIS_AUTHENTICATION	Iris Authentication is available (Android)
MULTIPLE	Returned when device has multiple biometric features. Currently there is no way of knowing which one is being used. (Android)

BiometricOptions

Properties	Default	Type	Description
reason?	"For biometric authentication"	string	Reason for requesting authentication in iOS. Displays in the authentication dialog presented to the user.
title?	"Authenticate"	string	Title for the Android prompt
subtitle?		string	Subtitle for the Android prompt
description?		string	Description for the Android prompt
negativeButtonText?	"Cancel"	string	Text for the negative button displayed on Android
maxAttempts?	1	number	Limit the number of attempts a user can perform biometric authentication. (Android - Max 5)
useFallback?	false	boolean	Specifies if the device should fallback to using passcode authentication.

Biometric Auth Errors

This is a plugin specific list of error codes that can be thrown on verifyIdentity failure, or set as a part of isAvailable. It consolidates Android and iOS specific Authentication Error codes into one combined error list.

Code	Description	Platform
0	Unknown Error	Android, iOS
1	Biometrics Unavailable	Android, iOS
2	User Lockout	Android, iOS
3	Biometrics Not Enrolled	Android, iOS
4	User Temporary Lockout	Android (Lockout for 30sec)
10	Authentication Failed	Android, iOS
11	App Cancel	iOS
12	Invalid Context	iOS
13	Not Interactive	iOS
14	Passcode Not Set	Android, iOS
15	System Cancel	Android, iOS
16	User Cancel	Android, iOS
17	User Fallback	Android, iOS

SetCredentialOptions

Properties	Default	Type	Description
username		string	The string used as the alias at the time of loggin in. It doesn't have to be a username. For example if you're using email to log in your users then provide the email.
password		string	The users' password
server		string	Any string to identify the credentials object with

GetCredentialOptions

Properties	Default	Type	Description
server		string	The string used to identify the credentials object when setting the credentials.

DeleteCredentialOptions

Properties	Default	Type	Description
server		string	The string used to identify the credentials object when setting the credentials.

Credentials

Properties	Default	Type	Description
username		string	The username returned from getCredentials(options: GetCredentialOptions).
password		string	The password returned from getCredentials(options: GetCredentialOptions).

Face ID (iOS)

To use FaceID Make sure to provide a value for NSFaceIDUsageDescription, otherwise your app may crash on iOS devices with FaceID.

This value is just the reason for using FaceID. You can add something like the following example to App/info.plist:

<key>NSFaceIDUsageDescription</key>
<string>For an easier and faster log in.</string>

Biometric (Android)

To use android's BiometricPrompt api you must add the following permission to your AndroidManifest.xml:

<uses-permission android:name="android.permission.USE_BIOMETRIC">

And register the plugin by adding it to you MainActivity's onCreate (Not needed for Capacitor 3):

import com.epicshaggy.biometric.NativeBiometric;

public class MainActivity extends BridgeActivity {
  @Override
  public void onCreate(Bundle savedInstanceState) {
    super.onCreate(savedInstanceState);

    // Initializes the Bridge
    this.init(savedInstanceState, new ArrayList<Class<? extends Plugin>>() {{
      // Additional plugins you've installed go here
      // Ex: add(TotallyAwesomePlugin.class);
      add(NativeBiometric.class);
    }});
  }
}

Contributors

Jonthia One Click Web Studio Brian Weasner Mohamed Diarra

Want to Contribute?

Learn about contributing HERE

Notes

Hasn't been tested on Android API level 22 or lower.