According to user reports, if you accidentally touch this region first, the entire iPhone screen becomes unresponsive ... the ...

The Apple Intelligence notification summaries on iOS 18.3 are temporarily disabled for news apps, appear italicized and can be disabled on a per-app basis from your lock screen.

We really rate the iPhone ... to be dead for the foreseeable future, that doesn't mean that Apple has given up on fingerprint recognition. It's been rumoured to be working on below-screen sensors ...