The classic Navigo card will soon be a distant memory! From October 17, 2022, travelers will be able to replace their transport tickets on the Ile-de-France network with Android applications. But not everything is easy…
Goodbye demagnetized and unusable tickets! And Navigo pass forgotten at home! In a few days, public transport users in the Ile-de-France region will be able to use their Android smartphone as a transport ticket – iPhone owners will have to wait a little longer. L’IDF Mobilités application – available on the Google Play Store – will get an update Monday, October 17. This new version will make it possible to buy transport tickets in electronic – dematerialized – form that can be used directly with their telephone, without a physical card or special accessory. A function that had been available since 2019, but only on Samsung models and on smartphones equipped with an Orange SIM card, which limited its expansion. This transitional era is over: now, all users of an Android mobile who wish to do so will be able to use the dematerialized Navigo pass. On certain conditions that should be specified.
Navigo pass on Android: a useful, but imperfect application
Version 8 of the IDF Mobilités application will allow you to buy transport tickets – tickets, books of 10 tickets, OrlyBus and RoissyBus tickets – from your Android mobile, but also to recharge your Navigo pass – Day, Week, Month packages and Young Weekend. On the other hand, annual and Liberté+ packages, as well as Destination tickets are not supported: you will have to be content with the good old physical method – but they should arrive by the end of 2023.
To use your smartphone as a transport ticket, you must have a device running Android 8 or higher – don’t panic, the IDF Mobilités application offers automatic verification when launching the function the first time – but also, and it’s is essential, equipped with a module NFC. Indeed, it is this wireless proximity communication technology (Near Field Communication, or near field communication in French), which allows the exchange of information between two compatible devices. A technology that is already widely used, both in the physical Navigo pass and on bank cards for contactless payments, which all have an NFC chip, like Orange SIM cards. In fact, you will have to be careful before opting for the “electronic” Navigo pass, because not all phones are NFC compatible, especially entry-level models!
That’s not all: the device must also be HCE compatible – Host Card Emulation, for host card emulation in French. A technology which, associated with NFC, makes it possible to simulate the presence of an electronic card on the device, and therefore to make it pass for a bank card or a transport card when it is placed on a control terminal. Do not panic, however: when installing the IDF Mobilités application, an error message is displayed on the screen if the mobile does not meet the necessary conditions (version of Android, NFC and HCE).
Once the application is installed, you can make your purchase. But that’s not enough: because to use dematerialized transport tickets – including the Navigo pass – you must also download and install the Contactless Ticket app. It is she who is responsible for displaying the tickets when passing a terminal or in the event of a check. Once in front of the terminal, no need to unlock the smartphone – but it must be on, except for Samsung devices, which incorporate a dedicated chip – just pass it over for the doors to open. An Internet connection is not even essential, even if it is recommended to synchronize your tickets regularly.
Dematerialized Navigo pass: more constraints
The use of an Android smartphone as a ticket, however, has some rather annoying limits. Already, it is impossible to transfer an already existing subscription: you have to wait for it to expire and then renew it on IDF Mobilités. Then, the tickets are only saved locally, in the phone’s memory. It cannot therefore be accessed with another device, which can be very problematic in the event of breakage, loss or theft of the smartphone. To benefit from this function, iPhone users will have to wait until the summer of 2023 – between June and September precisely. Tickets and Day passes can be integrated into Apple Wallet, but not the rest of the offer – it will be necessary, as for Android, to go through the IDF Mobilités application. The idea is to set up this system before 2024 and the Olympic Games, which take place in Paris, because not everyone will be able to queue at the RATP counters to get a ticket…