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The Nexus 5X has a fingerprint scanner located at the back, which can be used to unlock your phone. Andrew Matthews/PA Wire

You can now use your fingerprint to purchase apps from Google Play*

*Provided you’re lucky enough to have access to Android Marshmallow.

IT HASN’T BEEN long since the latest update to Android began rolling out – when it will arrive will depend on the kind of device you have – but while you wait, there are some features worth looking forward to.

One of the features included with Android 6.0 Marshmallow is fingerprint scanning as standard, meaning you can use it instead of a password for authentication.

Not only is it useful for those wanting to unlock their phone quickly – which it does a good job of so far – but it can now be used to verify purchases on the Google Play store.

Of course, you need a Marshmallow-powered phone to do this (the only ones that include fingerprint scanning so far are Google’s own devices, the Nexus 5X and 6P) but if your phone updates to Marshmallow anytime soon, you can activate it by going into settings and scrolling down to user controls.

Fingerprint authentication will be an option found under user controls so tick it and enter your password to activate it.

Google Play fingerprint

That said, it’s taken Google a bit of time to catch up to this trend. iOS users have had the same functionality ever since Touch ID arrived on the iPhone 5s two years ago, and the official rollout will be slower since you’ll likely need a new device to take advantage of it, but still, better late than never.

Read: Not using widgets? Then you’re missing out on one of your phone’s handiest feature >

Read:  How do you go from stock images to showcasing at the biggest tech event in the world? >

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Author
Quinton O'Reilly
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