How many times have you thought: how convenient it would be to be able to leave the car keys at home and unlock the car with your mobile phone, simply by bringing it to the handle or just before leaving the house, perhaps with a simple tap on the smartphone display. Here’s how your passion for engines and technology led you to look for a guide who can explain yourself how to open the car with the mobile phone.
I’ll tell you right away that this is feasible, but that such a solution has its pros and cons. In any case, if you are predisposed to technology you will almost certainly “fall in love” with it and after the first few uses you will hardly deprive yourself of it.
That said, take two minutes of free time to read this guide to the end and put it into practice: I guarantee you that at the end of the reading you will have the clearest ideas about this feature and you will be able to evaluate more firmly whether to start using the car opening system from smartphone.
Index
- Requirements
- App to open the car with the mobile
- How to open the car with the mobile phone
Requirements
In this chapter I will explain what all the requirements necessary to be able to open the machine with the mobile phone. As you can imagine, not all cars or all mobile devices are able to use this technology: that’s why it will be my responsibility to clarify the subject.
To date, there are different methods to open the car with the mobile phone and each of them is practicable only if the car and the mobile phone are equipped with the technology created for the purpose.
- Lock, unlock the car remotely: this technology allows you to open the car simply getting closer to it, you can keep your cell phone in your pocket, you don’t need to do anything else. Conversely, when you move away from the car, the car doors will automatically lock after a certain distance.
- Lock, unlock the car with the NFC sensor: through the NFC sensor it is possible to open or close the door locks with the mobile phone, the only inconvenience compared to the first solution is that in this case you will have to bring the device to the handle of the car equipped in turn with a specific sensor.
- Lock, unlock the car remotely: if the car is equipped with a data SIM and connectivity package, (which in recent years is almost always supplied as standard), you can remotely unlock and lock the car with your mobile phone thanks to a specific application. Wherever you are in the world, if covered by a data network, you can take advantage of this smart feature.
As you can see, the possibilities exist and are different from each other, in each case there will certainly be the one that can do more or less for you. But what are the requirements to be able to use this function? Well, first of all you need to have your car equipped with the technology designed for remote control. To find out, just read the information relating tostaging that you have purchased. If not, just contact the manufacturer or dealer where you bought the car.
The second key requirement is to have a compatible mobile phone, modern and capable of running the most up-to-date software offered by the manufacturer. In most cases, to be able to use the vehicle app and lock or unlock the car remotely, it is sufficient to have a smartphone with Android 6 or later or an iPhone with iOS 10 or higher.
However, this is purely relative. Each car brand develops its own application with its own requirements, so each of them individually determines which mobile phone it can be installed on and which version of the system software must be present in order to run it.
So the best suggestion I can give you in case you can’t understand if you have all the requirements to open the car with your mobile phone is to inform you at your dealership who will be able to tell you for sure if the car and mobile phone in your possession are ready. to offer you this service.
App to open the car with the mobile
Now that you know firmly that you have the requirements to open the car with your mobile, I show you an overview of the best applications on the market to achieve your goal. So let’s not waste any more time, here are some app to open the car with your mobile.
Apple Car Keys is a free service integrated into the app IPhone Walletpresent on iPhone XS, SE (2nd generation) and later models. You can use this app only if the machine in your possession is associated with theaccount / ID supplied and authorized by the manufacturer. With this app you can lock and unlock the compatible car without keys but not only, on compatible models you can also turn the car on and off remotely or perform other interesting functions.
Android smart key is a feature of Android 12 that has yet to land in most compatible devices. This is a feature launched in 2021 and – at the time of this writing – is only supported by Samsung Galaxy And Google Pixel with Android 12 or higher. However, over time it will be made available to other Android smartphone models. It will therefore be my concern to update the guide as soon as it will be possible to use this function on more models of Android phones.
Then there are the official applications of car manufacturerssuch as those listed below.
- We Connect is an app developed by Volkswagen, therefore designed only for customers of the German brand, which can be downloaded for free on Android 7.0 and iPhone devices with iOS 12 or later. It is compatible with cars equipped with Data SIM and package connectivity and lets to block And to unlock the car remotely, but not only: it also allows you to sound the horn, see the GPS position of the car, see the remaining range and much more.
- MyAudi, as you can easily guess, is a free application developed by Audi, a well-known German car manufacturer. It is designed to give Audi customers a continuous and “pocket” monitoring of their car, in fact with this application it is possible to open And to close the car with the NFC sensor by bringing the mobile phone close to the handle or to block And to unlock the car remotely. To get this app you need a device with Android 8.0 or later or an iPhone with iOS 14 or later.
- FordPass is a free app developed by the US brand Ford and is the ideal application to be able to to block or to unlock your Ford remotely. As with the applications described above, FordPass allows you to do many interesting things, such as switch on or switch off the car remotely (compatible models only), activate the heating at a specific temperature, activate the steering wheel heater and more. You can find FordPass for both phones with Android 7 or later and for iPhones with iOS 14 and later.
- Hyundai Digital Key is the app developed by Hyundai for customers who own the South Korean brand car, designed solely to manage the digital keys that allow their mobile device to to unlock And to block the car in the vicinity. You can download and install the Digital Key app for free on your device running Android 7 or later. For the Apple market, Hyundai has integrated all connectivity services into a single app called MyHyundai, which can be downloaded for free starting with the iOS 10 operating system.
- My BMW is the app developed by BMW GROUP, which includes the BMW Digital Key functionality. With this application you can create and share digital keys that allow the authorized device to be able to open the car by simply bringing it closer to the handle. In addition, the My BMW app is packed with features including locking and unlocking the car remotely. You can download the My BMW app for free for Android 6 and later and for iPhone with iOS 13 or later.
How to open the car with the mobile phone
If you meet all the requirements to open your car with your mobile phone and are ready to do your first remote opening, this is the chapter for you. In fact, below you will find a general and very practical guideline that will give you a tip on how to open the car with the mobile phone.
First of all you have to equip yourself withID associated with your vehicle (usually your e-mail address). Be careful, the account that will validate your ID must be created at the dealership and can only be authorized by producer of the vehicle. If you have the ID you can use the mobile application and lock or unlock the car, otherwise you cannot do it and to be sure you have not lost it I suggest you contact your dealership.
After identifying your ID, download the application that is right for you: if you have a Ford car you will download the app FordPassif you have a Hyundai car you will download the app Hyundai Digital Key and so on, each brand has its own application for car control, just as you will find described in the previous chapter. After installing the app for your car and entering your ID, you are ready for action.
In fact, just scroll down on the main page of the application to find the main functions just like it unlock And block of the car. The application will show you the status of your car in real time in order to make you understand at a glance whether the car at that precise moment is open or closed. The first time you intend to do this, I suggest that you be close to your machine to ensure proper functionality.
If your mobile phone has an NFC sensor you can bring the phone close to the car handle and unlock or lock it (as long as the car has this integrated technology). The application, once installed on the mobile device, will automatically detect the presence of the NFC sensor or if not, it will notify you of the incompatibility of this function between the phone and the vehicle through a notification when the app is opened.
