Just in time for the Olympic Games: almost two years after its deployment on smartphones running Android, Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) is finally launching the dematerialized Navigo pass on iPhone, available since Tuesday, May 21 in the application Cards. The president of the transport organizing authority Valérie Pécresse must present during the day how the new system works.
It is certainly not a metro extension, but it is nonetheless a major project which is being completed for IDFM. Three years of negotiations were necessary with Apple, which jealously protects the use of the NFC chip in its smartphones. The agreement signed in 2022 was then the subject of an appeal by the prefect of the Île-de-France region on certain of its provisions. Then it took time for “additional technological development” to finally offer this solution to travelers.
Ile-de-France travelers could already recharge their Navigo pass (subscriptions and tickets) on their phone with the IDFM, RATP or SNCF applications, without queuing at station machines. They will now be able to do without the physical card and validate at the gates directly with their iPhone, even when it is turned off.
To add it, you must have updated your iPhone with the latest version of iOS (the operating system) and go to the Maps application. By clicking on the “ ” button at the top right, then “Transport card”, you can find the Navigo pass in the list. From the application, by paying via Apple Pay, it is then possible to directly purchase t tickets, which allow you to travel on the metro and RER in Paris, individually and in books of 10, but also tickets RoissyBus and OrlyBus, or even a day pass.
For weekly and monthly subscriptions, you must use the Île-de-France Mobilités application, which already offered to recharge your physical Navigo pass from the iPhone. A second option now allows you to purchase these subscriptions to load them directly onto your phone. The annual Navigo or the Imagine R package, intended for young people, cannot, however, be dematerialized, as was already the case on Android, nor can tickets outside Paris or the Navigo Liberté. That’s a few million regular travelers who will still have to keep their Navigo pass in their pocket.