Android M to introduce native fingerprint authentication?

Google is reportedly planning to debut native fingerprint authentication feature on its Nexus line of devices, with the grand announcement of Android M OS at the I/O conference next week.

According to Buzzfeed and Ars Techinca, fingerprint scanners could indeed become a supported piece of hardware with Google's stock Android M firmware, as several hints in AOSP source code point to the advent of fingerprint readers with future Android updates.

Motorola's former CEO Dennis Woodside has reiterated that the Nexus 6 was originally proposed to include a fingerprint sensor and the idea was cancelled at the last moment as Apple bought the only company producing a good fingerprint sensor.

The report further explains that Google had been working on the setup and enrolment process pertaining to a fingerprint lock screen and a system fingerprint API service that could bypass the use of password to authenticate any Google Wallet or Play Store transaction.

As Android Police points out, Google's current hardware lacks support for fingerprint scanner and this leaves us with two possibilities, wherein the feature will be unusable until the next Nexus device (Nexus 5 2015) comes out or Google announces a totally new hardware at the I/O event.

It is unlikely that the Android maker would roll out the final Android M release at such short notice at the I/O event, and instead we could see a preview build of Android M just like the Android L preview released last year.