Fingerprint Plugin
A Xamarin and MvvmCross plugin for authenticating users via fingerprint, Face ID, and other biometric sensors.
What is Fingerprint Plugin?
Plugin.Fingerprint is a Xamarin and MvvmCross plugin that enables biometric authentication—such as fingerprint and Face ID—in cross-platform mobile applications. It provides a unified API to check sensor availability and authenticate users, simplifying the integration of secure login methods. The plugin abstracts platform-specific details, allowing developers to implement biometric features consistently across Android, iOS, Mac, and UWP.
Xamarin developers building mobile apps for Android, iOS, Mac, or UWP who need to add biometric authentication. It's also suitable for MvvmCross users looking for integrated biometric support within the MvvmCross framework.
Developers choose this plugin because it offers a single, easy-to-use API for biometric authentication across all major Xamarin platforms, saving time and reducing complexity. Its support for both vanilla Xamarin and MvvmCross, along with mocking for unit tests, makes it a robust and flexible solution for secure app development.
Overview
Xamarin and MvvMCross plugin for authenticate a user via fingerprint sensor
Use Cases
Best For
- Adding fingerprint login to a Xamarin.Forms app
- Implementing Face ID authentication in a Xamarin.iOS application
- Securing sensitive features in a cross-platform mobile app with biometrics
- Integrating biometric authentication with the MvvmCross framework
- Testing biometric flows in unit tests with mock implementations
- Supporting biometric sensors on Android, iOS, Mac, and UWP from a single codebase
Not Ideal For
- Projects built with .NET MAUI or other non-Xamarin frameworks
- Apps requiring fully customizable biometric dialogs on iOS
- Teams needing alternative authentication methods on UWP
- Developers preferring native implementations without third-party dependencies
Pros & Cons
Pros
Works on Xamarin.Android, Xamarin.iOS, Xamarin.Mac, and Windows UWP, enabling consistent biometric implementation across all major Xamarin targets without rewriting code.
Provides a single IFingerprint interface to handle biometric authentication, abstracting away platform-specific complexities and reducing development overhead.
Includes a dedicated MvvmCross plugin via a separate NuGet package, making it seamless for developers using the MvvmCross framework to inject biometric services.
Offers mock implementations like CrossFingerprintMock, allowing unit testing of authentication flows without requiring actual biometric hardware, as shown in the README examples.
Cons
On iOS, custom dialogs are not supported—only the standard system dialog—and on UWP, alternative authentication methods are unavailable, restricting user experience options.
Requires multiple platform-specific configurations, such as adding NSFaceIDUsageDescription in iOS Info.plist and Android X migration, which increases integration time and potential errors.
For displaying dialogs on Android, it relies on the Current Activity Plugin or custom implementations to resolve the current activity, adding an extra dependency and maintenance burden.
Frequently Asked Questions
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