Transport in Île-de-France: the Navigo pass will (finally) be available on iPhone by the end of May

This is the epilogue of several years of discussions. Validate at the gates of transport stations directly with your iPhone rather than with your Navigo card: this possibility will be given to Ile-de-France residents by the end of May after years of discussions with Apple, indicated Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) this Tuesday. Once announced for the first quarter of 2024, the device ultimately “required additional technological development,” said IDFM, the authority responsible for organizing transport in the region. Now “being finalized”, it “should be operational by the end of May”, before the Olympic Games.

Owners of phones other than iPhones could already validate at the gates without taking out their transport card since October 2022. But for iPhones, Apple restricted the use of NFC technology which allows the phone to communicate with the validation terminals at their location. contact. An agreement with Apple was necessary for its use, which was signed by IDFM in 2022 after more than three years of negotiations. Some administrative imbroglios - including an appeal filed by the prefect of Île-de-France - and additional technical development time have further delayed its implementation.

Since 2021, iPhone users can purchase and then load their subscription or single ticket onto their Navigo card without going through the machines at the stations. But the Navigo card remains mandatory when passing through the gates. In five years, 21 million transport ticket purchases were made directly via smartphones, reports IDFM, the majority (61%) by iPhone users. London, the use of the iPhone to validate in transport has been available since 2015, with a strengthening in 2019 which allowed passage through gates without having to unlock your phone. A system which should be reproduced in Ile-de-France.