2024-04-18 05:30:00
Since this week, Ile-de-France users have been able to use Ile-de-France public transport using their connected watch from the South Korean brand. Le Figaro tested this new functionality.
After Android smartphones, it’s time to validate with Samsung Galaxy Watch connected watches. After an experimental phase, Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM), the transport organizing authority in Île-de-France, has just generalized this new way of taking the metro or RER across the entire network. “The objective is to make life easier for Ile-de-France residents, avoiding queues to save them time by purchasing, recharging and validating their transport tickets almost instantly,” explain IDFM and Samsung in a joint press release. A new feature which is only open to owners of Android smartphones, version 8 minimum.
But before you can open the gates with your Galaxy Watch (4, 5 or 6 Series), some preparations are necessary. First, have downloaded the Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM) application on your phone and on your connected watch. Then take a second application, «Ticket sans contact», also on his phone and watch. A significant point of friction in the customer journey. For the service to work, you must also activate the NFC option on your mobile.
On the downside, if you already have tickets or a package on your smartphone, it is not possible to transfer them to your Samsung Galaxy Watch. “You must choose to put your transport ticket on your smartphone or on your watch, the two cannot coexist”, we confirm at IDFM. The authority specifies, however, that “developments are underway to allow a transport ticket to be transferred from a smartphone to a watch, or from one smartphone to another”.
Transport tickets on watches and smartphones are not (yet) transferable. Screenshot of Île-de-France Mobilités mobile application.
A few tens of thousands of eligible people
To buy tickets, go to your smartphone, since it is not possible to do so directly from your connected watch. There, you have to go to the Île-de-France Mobilités app, where it is possible to buy single tickets, daily tickets, or weekly or monthly packages. “We have a long-term roadmap to bring the full range of plans, including annual and imagine R, to smartphones and smartwatches”, we indicate at IDFM. Payment can be made by credit card or Samsung Pay. Once payment has been made, the transport ticket appears immediately on the watch.
Transport tickets appear on the Île-de-France Mobilités app on the Samsung Galaxy Watch. Julien Da Sois / Le Figaro
After this rather long and rather restrictive journey, we are finally ready to use our Samsung Galaxy Watch in transport. Head to Richelieu-Drouot station on line 9 of the Paris metro. With the watch hanging on our left wrist, we approach the gantry with hesitation, and bring our watch closer to the validator. The doors open, and the number of tickets remaining on the watch is displayed on the small screen. In the evening, same route but in the other direction. This time we left the watch off. Even there, validation works. Other travelers, unaccustomed to the process, give us a surprised look.
We can’t help but think that this new feature is just a simple gadget, intended for users who always want to be at the cutting edge of technology. Especially since, as IDFM admits, “we are not on a very important target”. It is estimated in Île-de-France at “several tens of thousands of eligible customers, with occasional tourists”. “The idea is to create a use complementary to that of the smartphone”, we defend within the organizing authority of Ile-de-France transport. For example for travelers who would not be comfortable taking their smartphone out of their pocket in the metro, or for athletes who do not always have their phone with them when they go out for a run.
Or even for tourists who are more reassured by the idea of dematerializing their transport ticket in their watch rather than in their smartphone. Hence the importance for IDFM to be able to offer this service “with a view to the Olympic and Paralympic Games this summer”. And what about Apple Watch owners? If IDFM indicated last week that it should (finally) be possible to validate at the gates with your iPhone “by the end of May” , no information has been given about the Apple brand’s connected watches. IDFM indicates today that it does not have “no more information to communicate on the integration of transport tickets on iOS at the moment”.
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