WMATA launches SmarTrip for iPhone and Apple Watch

WMATA launches Smarttrip for iPhone and Apple Watch
Unfortunately, it is not yet available for Android and Google Pay or Android Watch, which is not fair.
It still shows coming soon on the Google Pay page at https://pay.google.com/about/where-to-use/
I hate that WMATA is always focused on Apple and not Google.
Google Android had NFC years before Apple added it to the iPhone and Android Watches came out years before the iPhone, yet they don't get treated the same ways Apple devices too.

https://www.wmata.com/about/news/SmarTr ... -Watch.cfm

I have an iPhone so I’m fine with that but can understand the frustration. Hope it comes for you soon.

Not that ridership is particularly high right now anyway.

Great, requires an iPhone 8 or better. I got a 7+. I gotta upgrade. The 12 can't come soon enough...

Can't wait to try this if I ever get to take metro again... The transfer process was pretty easy, moved my SmartBenefits over no problem.

Just be careful: WMATA has confirmed, in their infinite wisdom, that once a SmarTrip Card is moved to the iOS Wallet, the physical card is deactivated. Not sure what you do when your phone and/or watch is dead.

The card lives on in your iCloud account. If you lose your phone or switch to a new one you can just wipe your old phone, login to the new one, click add card in wallet, and poof your old SmarTrip card is there.

https://www.wmata.com/fares/MobilePay/S ... .cfm#FAQ32

Yes but that still doesn't solve the issue of your phone being dead. I found this quote from that FAQ page but it isn't a full solution. Not sure what Express Transit cards are, and it requires a newer model phone.

On iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR and newer, you can use power reserve with your Express Transit card. Power reserve enables you to quickly pay for rides and is available for up to five hours when your iPhone needs to be charged. To see if Express Transit cards are available when your iPhone needs to be charged, press the side button. Doing this often may significantly reduce the power reserve for Express Transit cards. If you choose to power off your iPhone, this feature will not be available.

So basically with Apple Pay in order to use a card to pay for something you normally need to authenticate with either FaceID or TouchID. What express transit does is it can tell when you're trying to pay for transit (the readers are coded specially to identify themselves as transit readers) and it skips the touch/faceID authentication step so you can just tap and go. By default when you add a SmarTrip card to your iPhone express transit mode is turned on for it.

Sure having 5 extra hours to tap a card after your phone dies isn't a "full solution" but how often are you stuck with a dead phone for more than 5 hours and then need to take a metro trip without having a chance to top up your battery? Seems like a pretty rare situation. If you're someone that regularly lets your phone just sit dead for more than five hours or you're that concerned about it this clearly isn't for you so don't use it or keep an emergency SmarTrip card in your wallet with a couple of bucks on it.

danib62 wrote:So basically with Apple Pay in order to use a card to pay for something you normally need to authenticate with either FaceID or TouchID. What express transit does is it can tell when you're trying to pay for transit (the readers are coded specially to identify themselves as transit readers) and it skips the touch/faceID authentication step so you can just tap and go. By default when you add a SmarTrip card to your iPhone express transit mode is turned on for it.

Sure having 5 extra hours to tap a card after your phone dies isn't a "full solution" but how often are you stuck with a dead phone for more than 5 hours and then need to take a metro trip without having a chance to top up your battery? Seems like a pretty rare situation. If you're someone that regularly lets your phone just sit dead for more than five hours or you're that concerned about it this clearly isn't for you so don't use it or keep an emergency SmarTrip card in your wallet with a couple of bucks on it.

Ah, that makes sense! That's cool! Not really sure why it still deactivates the physical card anyway though. I'd be pissed I didn't know that and registered my Retro 1976 one