Tight pants and other Face ID Express Transit fuckups

Express Transit is the best and most natural way of using Apple Pay. It first came to iPhone with Mobile Suica in 2016, expanding incrementally until finally going wide with iOS 15 Wallet. Suica has been around so long in Tokyo that younger generations don’t know anything else, it’s ubiquitous. Used global NFC iPhones and Osaifu Keitai are ubiquitous too so there are a lot more people using Mobile Suica, and complaining about it.

Mobile Suica complaints aren’t a bad thing. All those bad Suica App reviews on the App store and complaints on Twitter mean that people use Mobile Suica enough to download Suica App, register an account, use it, then go online and complain. It’s a gold mine of information, invaluable feedback telling us what trips users up at transit gates, a user base with 15 years of mobile transit experience. Any transit operator looking to implement good mobile transit service would greatly benefit from studying strengths and weaknesses of Mobile Suica, the worlds largest, oldest and most widely used mobile transit card service. Unfortunately nobody bothers to do so.

Tight pants + face masks = Face ID fuckups
As always, most Apple Pay Suica problems boil down to Face ID issues that disable Express Transit. Mobile Suica support even has a dedicated help post it puts out regularly. Face/Touch ID and Express Transit are joined at the hip. When Face/Touch ID is disabled, Express Transit is also disabled, a passcode is required to turn them on again. From the iOS 15 user guide: you must always enter your passcode to unlock your iPhone under the following conditions:

You turn on or restart your iPhone.
You haven’t unlocked your iPhone for more than 48 hours.
You haven’t unlocked your iPhone with the passcode in the last 6.5 days, and you haven’t unlocked it with Face ID or Touch ID in the last 4 hours.
Your iPhone receives a remote lock command.
There are five unsuccessful attempts to unlock your iPhone with Face ID or Touch ID.
An attempt to use Emergency SOS is initiated.
An attempt to view your Medical ID is initiated.

You might think a passcode unlock is always the same, however there are surprisingly different Express Transit results at the gate show in the following video clips.

The first video shows Express Transit in normal action when Face ID (or Touch ID) and Express Transit mode are on. This is exactly what Suica users expect at transit gates and store readers. When it doesn’t work like this every single time, they complain.
The second video shows a passcode request after restarting iPhone (#1), not something that would happen in real world use but I wanted to show the different kinds of passcode requests.
The third video is the most common one: the Apple Pay screen appears with a passcode request (#5-five failed Face ID attempts when wearing a face mask), this is exacerbated by Face ID Raise to Wake which is why I recommend that Face ID users turn it off when wearing face masks. There is a similar but separate issue when a user inadvertently pushes the side buttons (#6-emergency SOS • iPhone shut down), this happens more than you might think because side buttons are easily pressed when iPhone is in a tight pants pocket, especially when iPhone is in a case which is pretty much everybody.
The last video shows manual Apple Pay card selection and authentication when an Express Transit is not set, this is also how Apple Pay works on open loop transit systems without Express Transit support such as Sydney’s Opal.

An interesting side note about Japanese transit gate reader design UI. The blue light NFC reader hit area not only makes a great big visual target, it tells us the gate is ‘ready and waiting’. Notice how the blue light goes off when the reader is busy with a card transaction, then blinks on again ready and waiting for the next card. Watch the above videos carefully and you’ll notice the blue reader light stays lit with every false read attempt. Only when the correct card is brought up does it blink off and complete the transaction. When there’s a real problem the blue light changes to red.

This is simple, clever and user friendly design as your eyes are naturally focused where your hand is but you don’t see the design anywhere else except the new OMNY system readers. Copying the Japanese gate reader UI design is a smart move by Cubic Transportation Systems and MTA but their LED screen NFC hit area combo design appears to be somewhat fragile. The green ‘GO’ might seem like a nice touch but I suspect it subliminally makes a use wait for it. More feedback isn’t always better. Every millisecond wasted at the transit gate is a bad design choice.

Japanese transit gate readers provide visual feedback exactly where your eyes are naturally focused

Fixing Face ID
iPhone users in America only became aware of Face ID shortcomings thanks to COVID face mask mandates. Yes Virginia, Face ID sucks with face masks and Express Transit users in New York and London came face to face with issue #5: five successful Face ID attempts disables Face ID and Express Transit. It got so bad that MTA pleaded with Apple to ‘fix Face ID’. Apple dribbled out some Face ID “fixes” that didn’t fix very much.

iOS 13.5 introduced a Face ID with face mask passcode popup tweak that didn’t make passcode entry any easier and certainly didn’t fix Face ID use with a face mask. People quickly forgot about it.

iOS 14.5 introduced Unlock iPhone with Apple Watch that was widely ballyhooed by tech bloggers but real world use was a different story:

I find it fails me too often on the daily commute and in stores, usually at the very moment I need to launch dPOINT or dPay apps at checkout. I also get the feeling that Apple Watch battery life takes a hit too… If it works for you that’s great, but the Unlock with Apple Watch end user experience will be all over the place.

Also telling was that online Face ID/Express Transit complaints continued to grow despite the iOS 14.5 feature. Unlock with Apple Watch is a one trick pony, it unlocks a Face ID iPhone when a mask is detected, nothing more, no Apple Pay, no Face ID fix.

iOS 15.4 introduced Face ID with a mask for iPhone 12 and later. This is the first true fix for using Face ID with face masks, finally doing all the work Face ID does from unlocking iPhone to authenticating Apple Pay and apps. It’s not perfect as it doesn’t fix Face ID for earlier iPhone X-XS-11 models, and there are trade offs as it reduces Face ID security for the convenience of keeping your face mask on. In my experience Face ID with a mask on iPhone 13 Pro is certainly an improvement but slower and less successful than using Face ID without a mask. Face ID with a mask is also somewhat quirky. It doesn’t like strong backlighting, some users report frequent ‘look down’ requests depending on the their type of face and glasses.

Now that Apple has a focused Face ID with face mask roadmap that restores the Face ID Apple Pay experience, we can ignore all that mushy ridiculous Touch ID + Face ID dual biometric iPhone talk. Expect Apple to focus on improving Face ID with a mask performance on legacy Face ID on iPhone 12 and 13 in future iOS updates and delivering phenomenally better Face ID technology in future iPhones.

iOS 15.4 Face ID with a mask restores the Apple Pay Suica Express Transit experience

iOS 15.4 Face ID with a mask eliminates unexpected passcode prompts when 5 Face ID misreads disable Express Transit. It’s enough of a problem that JR East Mobile Suica has repeatedly issued a Face ID misread / passcode prompt support note

The iOS 15.4 update is out. The biggest feature by far is Use Face ID with a Mask. It makes daily iPhone use a much better experience for those wearing face masks with iPhone 12 and later. Even though America and other countries are rolling back face mask requirements, many Japanese will probably keep them on even if Japanese authorities follow the maskless trend. Wearing a face mask has become such an ingrained second nature that people wear them even when it doesn’t make sense, like walking in an empty park at a night.

When it comes to using Suica you might think Express Transit mode removes all Face ID with face mask Apple Pay issues. Here’s the thing, Suica is easily the most used Apple Pay card in Japan and the most used transit card on the Apple Pay platform. You still need Face ID authorization to recharge a Suica in Wallet, and there’s the Face ID misread problem. 5 Face ID misreads deactivates Express Transit Mode that Suica users depend on.

The Face ID with face mask misread problem is big enough that JR East Apple Pay Suica support reissued a notice outlining the causes. 5 Face ID misreads is very easy to do when wearing a face mask and it deactivates Express Transit Mode without any UI feedback or alert, tripping up Express Transit Suica users at the transit gate or store reader with a passcode prompt. Unexpected passcode prompts at transit gates or bus exit readers with people behind you are flustering ‘I wanna go back to plastic’ experiences.

I also wonder if QR Code payment apps have brainwashed young people into thinking they have to open an app for every payment and transit gate. There are enough user comments on social media to suggest people open Suica App in the mistaken assumption they need launch Suica App to use Suica. Imagine doing that every time you want to use Express Transit Suica…head scratchingly pointless.

The good thing is that iOS 15.4 Face ID with a face mask solves this mess…finally. In Japan that’s big. Face ID with a mask restores the Express Transit Suica and the whole Apple Pay user experience to what it was before Face ID. It’s too bad that Apple didn’t have this feature in place back at the iPhone X launch because Face ID without the ‘use with a mask’ option seriously dented the whole Apple Pay and Express Transit experience. That omission was a big design failure on Apple’s part. At the very least Apple should have included distinct and clear UI notification so users could tell when Face ID misreads had disabled Express Transit mode.

iOS 15.4 Face ID with a mask is long overdue. Between the iPhone X NFC problem and the 5 Face ID misreads disable Express Transit problem, the stellar Suica experience on Face ID iPhone has been a long slow disaster. iPhone Face ID users in Asia complained about the Face ID with face mask issue for years but this fell on deaf ears. Why did it take a COVID crisis for Apple to fix it?

Hopefully Apple leadership has finally learned an important lesson, with improved, highly secure, face mask friendly Face ID and better Express Mode status feedback coming to a future iPhone near you.

Japanese Apple Pay Suica users are happy that iOS 15.4 Face ID with a face mask feature makes recharge easy again and eliminates the Face ID misread / passcode prompt issue.

Unpacking Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone announcement

Apple issued a press release outlining Tap to Pay on iPhone. Let’s examine it and figure out what’s going on behind the scenes.

Jennifer Bailey has an expanded title: vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet. 2 separate services. With iOS 15 Apple is heavily marketing Wallet app as a very separate thing, identity if you will, from Apple Pay. One reason could be that…

iOS 15.4 introduces a new framework: “Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available to participating payment platforms and their app developer partners to leverage in their software developer kits (SDKs) in an upcoming iOS software beta.” This suggests Tap to Pay is new framework, not an addition to Core NFC as direct NFC payments in apps has been strictly off limits (the ‘open NFC’ thing). Accepting payments and tying both them and iPhone NFC to POS services is new and different enough to keep things separate, especially if Apple wants to keep making payments corralled in Wallet app. We’ll find out when the SDK and documentation are released.

Stripe first, other US payment platforms to follow: “Stripe will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to their business customers, including the Shopify Point of Sale app this spring. Additional payment platforms and apps will follow later this year.” In other words, Tap to Pay on iPhone is no ‘Square Killer’, it only removes NFC / EMV reader headaches for payment platform players so they can focus on delivering better POS software.

Apple Business Register Account: Steve Moser dug into the latest beta and found some interesting strings. They indicate that merchants who want to use Tap to Pay services will have to register an Apple Business Account, i.e. certification. Certification is important as nobody wants millions of potential rogue Tap to Pay iPhones wandering around in the wild.

Is Tap to Pay free? After you register your free Apple Business Account, talk with your payment platform provider.

Secure Element applets and NFC Certificates: Moser also found a string that sheds some light on memory constrictions in connection with Tap to Pay applets loading into the Secure Element: “Could not install Contactless Reader components due to insufficient secure memory space. Try removing some unused passes from Wallet” and “Insufficient Secure Memory”. The Secure Element holds up to 16 ‘cards’ (applets) in iOS 15 Wallet. Tap to Pay iPhones will have to clear out some Wallet items when activating Tap to Pay.

Payment platforms and their app developer partners who want to support Tap to Pay will certainly have to obtain NFC certificates to load their Tap to Pay applets in the Secure Element. Stripe says, “With Tap to Pay on iPhone, millions of businesses using Stripe can enhance their in-person commerce experience by offering their customers a fast and secure checkout.”

The key phrase is secure checkout. I suspect the Tap to Pay NFC certification process will be somewhat different from PassKit certificates that, up to now, have been for developers wanting to add payment cards, transit cards, passes, etc., to Wallet. Wallet cards are for everybody, Tap to Pay is for merchants and won’t be appearing in Wallet app, only the payment provider app. A different service with a different hurdle and a different cut of the transaction for Apple. Hence Jennifer Bailey’s expanded job title.

Some Tap to Pay thoughts
It’s very interesting that Tap to Pay and Face ID with a Mask support are coming in the same iOS 15.4 update. It’s as if Apple is saying Face ID Apple Pay is back and better than ever, at least for for iPhone 12 and later users. I think the value of Tap to Pay is not about entering the payment platform market and grabbing share, it’s about delivering a huge pool of potential quality user experience iPhone as payment terminals to POS system providers who create ‘an app for that’.

In other words if Tap to Pay delivers a fast, secure, out of the box solution that elegantly delivers a superior experience for merchant and customer, that will be enough. Tap to Pay on iPhone leads the way without being market leader. There are certainly enough crappy Android based payment terminals out there that don’t offer much competition.

The number of plastic contactless credit/debit cards users, Apple Pay users, Google Pay users, etc. is enough, or Apple thinks it’s enough to take contactless payments in the US to the next level. To date the biggest hurdle has been the lack of good contactless payment checkout hardware, the bolted on afterthought ‘you’re holding it wrong’ experience. I remember the dismal contactless checkout situation when spending a few months in Salt Lake City in 2018. If anything Tap to Pay can eliminate the bad contactless payment experience for good…if, and only if, it handles spotty network connection issues without a transaction hitch or hiccup.

It would also be cool if Tap to Pay leverages smarter NFC, and UWB, for a better customer Wallet experience. Too many times we have to fumble around to bring up the right payment or point reward card for a dumb reader that could do better. The more automatic, the better.

Will Tap to Pay play in other regions? In EMV centric markets after it clears local regulation and certification hoops, it’s certainly possible, but from a political standpoint I wonder how viable Europe is in the current ‘everything-Apple-is-monopolistic-behavior‘ environment. Japan is certainly a much more welcoming market for Tap to Pay but only if FeliCa support (Suica, iD, QUICPay, etc.) is front and center alongside EMV contactless. On of the reasons why code payments like PayPay are popular is that customers with smartphones are everywhere and merchants don’t need any upfront payment terminal investment, just a smartphone POS app. Tap to Pay iPhone could level the playing field.

Like all things Apple Pay, the changes it brings to the payments market with its tight integration of Secure Element + NFC/UWB + slick UI are not always fast or easy to see, but I think Tap to Pay has potential to bring similar changes on the merchant side which then feed changes on the customer side. An infinite loop. We’ll see how it evolves.

Tap on Pay images from Apple feature smartphone and plastic EMV contactless payments

Deliciously timely iOS 15.4 Wallet and Mobile Suica day pass support

Mobile Suica day pass support starts March 12

JR East announced 2 new features for Mobile Suica yesterday: day passes and student commuter pass online purchase and renewal support. Day passes are already available for plastic Suica, Mobile Suica support starts March 12. The 4 passes are: Nobiri Holiday, Tokyo Ward Pass, Tokyo Free Pass, Yokohama-Minatomirai Free Pass.

These Mobile Suica passes will not be available at the local station ticket window, they are purchased in a new version of Suica App due by the service launch date. Only regular Mobile Suica or Mobile Suica with expired commute plan can be used for day passes, Mobile Suica with valid a commuter plan attached cannot be used. JR East is promoting the passes offering bonus JRE POINT when purchased in Suica App with a VIEW credit card.

New Wallet app strings in iOS 15.4 developer beta found by Steve Moser

The very next day after the JR East announcement Apple released the first developer iOS 15.4 beta with many new features including Wallet app strings related to transit card commute plans and stored value, such as “Save money with time based or unlimited ride plans.”

The delicious timing is not coincidence: Apple Pay Suica will certainly put these new iOS 15.4 Wallet strings to good use when the new day passes launch. Wallet app currently indicates when a Suica card is a regular type or has a commute plan attached. The addition of Suica day passes require some sort of new Wallet UI indicator.

One interesting aspect of the Mobile Suica commuter pass limitation: the current card architecture only has one area for attachted commute plans, if there is a valid commute plan it must be removed before a day pass can be added. This storage limitation is addressed by Suica 2 in 1 which holds up to 2 different commute plans but even here there is the problem of conflicting commute plan + day pass plan that exist for the same transit region on the same card. There is no way for the transit gate to determine which one to use for fare calculation: commute plan or day pass. Hence the ‘no commute plan’ rule.

Mobile Suica student commuter passes (university or vocational schools) have been around for some time, but purchase and renewal required a trip to the local JR East ticket office to confirm the school issue student ID. From February 13 students purchase and renew Mobile Suica student commute plans in a new version of Suica App after pre-registration and uploading a picture of the student ID for verification via the Mobile Suica member site (that got a desperately needed refresh). Still somewhat of a pain but much better than before.

Imagine how easy it would be if a digital student ID card loaded in Wallet could be used for secure digital confirmation instead of uploading a picture and mailing a paper copy. In time digital ID will hopefully deliver this kind of time saving convenience.