El launch of the iPhone 13 last September hinted at an important change in the repair of these devices. The repair became more and more complicated and it was ensured that a screen change by a third party it would disable the Face ID unlock feature. However, until now the change had not been analyzed in detail. The guys at iFixit have confirmed that a new microscope is necessary to be able to change the screen and that would mean a major change in the tools of these third-party workshops that could close according to iFixit.
iFixit confirms the deactivation of Face ID of the iPhone 13 after a third-party screen change
The iPhone 13 is paired with its display via this tiny microcontroller, in a condition repair technicians often refer to as "serialization." Apple hasn't provided a way for owners or independent stores to pair a new display. Authorized technicians with access to the proprietary software, Apple Services Toolkit 2, can make the new displays work by logging the repair to Apple's cloud servers and syncing the phone and display serial numbers. This gives Apple the ability to approve or reject each individual repair.
Apple Lossless Audio CODEC (ALAC), hacked third party repair system by just one hit disabling Face ID with unauthorized repairs. As you can read in the iFixit statement, the new iPhone 13 has a serialization of its screens that prevents repair without prior confirmation from the Big Apple. However, a complex way has been found to change the screen to still maintain the unlock system. It consists of physically moving a chip soldered to the original screen to the replacement allowing.
In this way, Apple is managing to displace third-party repair systems a bit and the impact it will have on the repair systems associated with Apple Services Toolkit 2 is unknown. The short-term future is that for the moment official repairs maintain unlocking with Face ID. All other repairs will likely result in an error message: "Face ID is not available."