Can Fingerprints Interfere With Touchscreen Commands?

Touchscreens often attract fingerprints. After all, you can't control a touchscreen without touching it. All touchscreens require direct contact to perform a command, so they'll inevitably attract fingerprints over time. In some cases, fingerprints are harmless and won't affect a touchscreen's functionality. In other cases, they can prevent a touchscreen from registering commands.

How Fingerprints Affect Touchscreen Commands

Fingerprints can prevent a touchscreen from registering your commands by blocking the flow of electricity between the device's interface and your finger. Most touchscreens use capacitive technology. Known as capacitive touchscreens, they register commands by measuring electricity.

Touching or tapping the interface with a conductive object - a bare finger is considered a conductive object - will change the touchscreen's electrical charge. If there's a fingerprint on the touchscreen, though, the electrical charge may fail to change.

Resistive Touchscreens

Resistive touchscreens are less susceptible to the effects of fingerprints. They don't detect touch commands by measuring electricity. Instead, they work mechanically by using two layers with conductive contacts. Pressing or tapping the interface will force the two layers together so that their conductive contacts touch each other.

Since they work mechanically, resistive touchscreens will register your touch commands even if the interface is covered in fingerprints. Fingerprints can prevent the flow of electricity from a capacitive touchscreen's interface to your finger. Resistive touchscreens, on the other hand, don't create a flow of electricity between the interface and your finger. Therefore, they are virtually immune to the effects of fingerprints.