After multiple delays, Apple and the Paris region’s transport authority rolled support for Paris transit cards in Apple Wallet. This means people can now use their iPhone or Apple Watch as a Navigo pass to ride the metro, train, tram or bus.
This is important news for Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) — the transport authority — as millions of people are expected to come to Paris this summer for the Olympics. Android users they were able to use their phone as a Navigo pass for a while.
Apple’s integration is also the result of years of negotiations with the technology company, as IDFM does not rely on Apple Pay, Visa or Mastercard to enable this feature. Instead, the iPhone emulates a Navigo card using its built-in NFC chip.
Yesterday, I created a virtual Navigo pass and used it to ride the metro and it worked as expected. There are two ways to create a virtual Navigo pass. You can do it either from the official transport principle application or directly to Apple Wallet.
For tourists who don’t want to download another app, adding a transit card is easy enough. You can open the Wallet app, tap the + button and add a Navigo card. After that, you can buy one or more tickets and pay with Apple Pay.
When you enter the subway, you can use your iPhone to “tap to ride.” You can either double-click the iPhone’s side button and select Navigo pass or enable Express Mode. In the latter case, you can touch your iPhone near a reader and it will automatically select the Navigo pass without you having to unlock or wake up your iPhone.
Every time you use your iPhone as a transit pass, you get a notification letting you know how many tickets you have left. You can also view this information in the Wallet app and buy more tickets whenever you want.
The new mode is also compatible with power reserve — if you run out of battery, you can use your transit pass with Express Mode for a few hours. And if you lose your device, you can lock it remotely using the Find Me app from another device — it will disable Express mode.
So if you are a tourist visiting Paris, you no longer need to visit ticket machines. However, if you live in Paris and have an annual or Liberté+ subscription, you won’t be able to add your transit pass to Apple Wallet until 2025.
In other Paris news, Apple also added real-time transit information. While most people rely on Citymapper the Bonjour RATP to get around the city, you can now tap on a train station or bus stop to see upcoming departures. This summer, Apple will also add 3D renderings of the Paris venues for the summer games.
