Apple Pay Navigo is finally here after a very long gestation, a French government dictated delay and EU dictated open NFC Host Card Emulation, just in time for the Paris Olympics. The first indication of the launch was the sudden apperance of Live Transit for Île-de-France in Apple Maps. A few hours later Navigo appeared in Wallet along with a new version of Navigo app v8.1.0 from Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM).
IDFM support specs are listed as follows:
To use Navigo on iPhone or Watch, the user must have at least an iPhone XS or XR or iPhone SE 2 with at least iOS 17.5 and version 8.1 of the Île-de-France Mobilités app and from a Watch Series 6 or Watch SE 2 model with at least WatchOS 10.5 version.
Wallet app supports direct purchase of the weekday mobile passes and tickets offered on Android while the Navigo app offers a few extra options for weekly and monthly passes, similar to using Suica App for purchasing commuter passes.
All in all there isn’t much really new compared to Navigo on Samsung Pay, but Apple Pay Navigo does offer a far better experience than HCE Smart Navigo on most Android devices.
The most surprising aspect of the launch was Apple PR going out of it’s way for a transit card that we have not seen in years, maybe never, rolling out an English language press release and making Apple Pay VP Jennifer Bailey available for interviews with French media. The press release specifically outlines the security and privacy advantages of having the Navigo card ‘on the device’ in the secure element.
Jennifer Bailey gave an unusually long online interview with French tech reporter Romain Lanéry going over the features and the reasons for why it took so long to launch…without giving the real reasons for the long delay of course, stressing the security and privacy of having cards on the device, in the secure element. Not that anything is going to change the minds of EU officials, but at least Apple can appeal to the hearts and minds of French iPhone users with a superior Express Mode powered transit experience.
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