The iPhone and Apple Watch can be used to validate your transport ticket in Île-de-France in 2023. Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the provincial authority in control of transportation, and Apple have reached an understanding after many years of discussion.
A testing phase will start this year with compatible iPhones and Apple Watches. These devices can substitute the cards circulated by IDFM, like Navigo passes and the Communities organization. By 2024, most transportation tokens will be bought directly with Apple Pay. It will then be incorporated into the Cards app (ex-Wallet), reports Le Parisien. Confirmation at entrances will be done using the NFC chip of the devices, without the need to validate the operation with Touch ID or Face ID – this is what Apple calls Express mode.
Apple Pay Will Allow Users To Buy Transport Tickets
The contract concluded between IDFM and Apple Pay, which is valid for five years, includes an envelope of a maximum of 5 million euros dedicated to the development of these new services. The stumbling block was until then the financial conditions of the partnership.
Since last year, it has been possible to recharge your Navigo pass with an iPhone using NFC. Being able to get rid of the card and use your iPhone instead is the next step that many users have been waiting for for a long time.
The iPhone’s Apple Pay has been used as a transport card in Japan since 2016. Cities in other countries have since been added to the list (in China, Russia, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Sweden), but not always the same way. In London, for example, a bank card stored in Cards is used as the payment method. For Paris and its region, it will indeed be a dematerialized Navigo pass in Maps, as is the case in Japan with the Suica or Pasmo cards.
It was already possible to use an Android smartphone to validate trips to Île-de-France, but only under specific conditions. By the middle of the year, all Android smartphones will serve as a transport card thanks to a new solution (Host Card Emulation, which emulates the cards in a mobile application) deployed by IDFM.