iOS 16 Will Let iPhone Users Bypass CAPTCHAs in Supported Apps and Websites

Tapping on images of traffic lights or deciphering squiggly text to prove you are human will soon be a much less common nuisance for iPhone users, as iOS 16 introduces support for bypassing CAPTCHAs in supported apps and websites.

iOS 16 Bypass CAPTCHA
The handy new feature can be found in the Settings app under Apple ID > Password & Security > Automatic Verification. When enabled, Apple says iCloud will automatically and privately verify your device and Apple ID account in the background, eliminating the need for apps and websites to present you with a CAPTCHA verification prompt.

Apple recently shared a video with technical details about how the feature works, but simply put, 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. This new system will offer a better user experience for tasks such as signing into or creating an account, with improved user privacy and accessibility compared to CAPTCHAs.

"Private Access Tokens are a powerful alternative that help you identify HTTP requests from legitimate devices and people without compromising their identity or personal information," said Apple, in the description of a WWDC 2022 video related to the topic.

Cloudflare and Fastly have already announced support for Private Access Tokens, meaning that the ability to bypass CAPTCHAs could be coming to millions of apps and websites powered by those platforms, and the feature will roll out more widely over time.

In the first betas of iOS 16 and iPadOS 16, Automatic Verification is enabled by default. Apple said the feature is also supported on macOS Ventura. All of the software updates are currently in beta and will be released later this year.

Related Roundups: iOS 16, iPadOS 16
Related Forum: iOS 16

Top Rated Comments

CapitalIdea Avatar
13 months ago
Time for the EU to threaten to fine them for monopolizing convenience.
Score: 42 Votes (Like | Disagree)
TheYayAreaLiving ?️ Avatar
13 months ago
Nice! this will save up so much time. It's a nice welcoming feature.
Score: 30 Votes (Like | Disagree)
Sciomar Avatar
13 months ago
That will be very awesome, I dislike some of those CAPTCHAs. They don't always load correctly or register and I get locked in a loop.
Score: 22 Votes (Like | Disagree)
WWPD Avatar
13 months ago
That's disappointing, I always liked playing the "click pictures of crosswalks" as a mini-game. I wish someone would make an app with nothing but captchas.
Score: 21 Votes (Like | Disagree)
LoveTo Avatar
13 months ago
But it was never about human verification. I recall watching a video that Google had found a way to verify human activity with just the mouse movements and other parameters. Captchas were still reintroduced so they can train their car driving AIs for free. That’s why the captchas always only have images related to driving/roads/backgrounds.
Score: 20 Votes (Like | Disagree)
munpip214 Avatar
13 months ago
Next up, please hide all of those cookie preference popups and disable all but necessary.
Score: 19 Votes (Like | Disagree)

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