If the new rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S21 are accurate, your voice is going to be the password to next year's flagship phone And it's a feature that could make iPhone 12 owners pale with envy

SamMobile, which reports on phones expected to debut in early 2021, says the often-overlooked Bixby assistant is picking up a feature that offers biometric unlocking instead of face, pin code, or pattern The company states Previously, Bixby had been an available unlock option by setting the user to follow voice commands after using the wake phrase "Hi, Bixby"

Bixby had offered voice commands for unlocking two years ago, but Samsung disabled the feature due to security concerns Perhaps the return of voice unlocking means that Samsung feels that those issues have been resolved

The voice unlock feature will be part of One UI 31, Samsung's phone interface built on Android 11 In other words, while the Galaxy S21 would have voice unlock out of the gate, this feature would eventually make its way to other Galaxy devices, including some of the currently available flagships

Details on how Bixby will be able to be configured to take advantage of this option, or what voice unlock will entail, are not yet available, but the option for users to set their phone's lock screen with an attractive new feature It is certain that it will be an attractive new addition to the options users have when setting their phone's lock screen It is also not clear how secure voice unlocking actually is, or how easy it will be to fool the phone in the same way that facial recognition is

Right now, we still do not know what kind of release date to expect regarding the Galaxy S21 series Reports have indicated that it could be as early as January 2021 In recent years, Samsung has unveiled new Galaxy S phones in February before launching in March

As for pricing, the Galaxy S21 is expected to have a similar price point to the Galaxy S20 line, likely starting around $999 Rumor has it that the Galaxy S21 will be joined by the Galaxy S21 FE, making for four models Galaxy S21 Plus and Galaxy S21 Ultra