We’ve seen Sydney commuters being able to tap on and off trains, busses and ferries with their phones and now it appears the Victorian Government is also looking give their residents the same option – at least as long as they’re using an Android phone.
Transport Victoria is currently looking for 4,000 Victorian commuters over the age of 16 to take part in a trial of the technology.
Users will need a Gmail account, and have an Android phone with NFC built-in running Android 5.0 and above in order to take part in the trial. They should be Myki users too, holding a full-fare, child, senior or general concession Myki card before filling out a survey, after which they may be accepted to the trial.
At least one user on reddit who filled in the survey has now found themselves able to add their Myki card to Google Pay. The Myki implementation in Google Pay allows them to either setup a Myki Pass or use Myki money which can be topped up and spent on a trip-by-trip basis – a handy option for visitors to the state who don’t need an ongoing pass.
According to the redditor if you setup a pass, you can specify the use of the pass in zones 1-14, and select the number of days it should be used for ranging from 7 days, through 28 days, 30 days, 31 days, 33 days, 40 days, 50 days or 60 days.
Payment can be made through a credit card, which doesn’t necessarily have to be supported in Google Pay.
Once setup, users who want to can then choose to transfer their virtual Myki card to another device with the same Google account.
The bonus of this trial is the schadenfreude of watching iOS users complaining about being left out of the trial. Apple has to date refused to allow any third party access to the secure element required for NFC transactions to take place outside of their control. According to an article in The Age, the Victorian government is in talks with Apple about a solution to this issue.
If you’re a Victorian commuter who meets the requirements you can head over to the survey, fill in your details and try your luck getting into the trial.
Signed up and been accepted but the option isn’t showing up on my GPay yet
Can you still top up myki money/pass with cash at the machines with the google pay devices? (leaning towards the devices being to big and/or NFC may not be strong enough for the machines to detect it)
Just used it to get home. No problem – other than the typical Metro train cancellations.
I got my welcome to the Myki Mobile trial today
Don’t know what you guys are talking about? Apple Pay has supported transit cards for quite some time.
https://support.apple.com/en-au/HT207958
Just cause they don’t let every transit company implement their transit card in a slightly different and inconsistent way doesn’t mean they are left out.
I find this article to be very misleading in implying the app developer needs direct access to the NFC hardware in order to do transit. Took me 10 seconds to find evidence otherwise.
True they support it but how much do they charge the operator for the privilege? Not sure PTV need it to work on iPhone as much as Apple might! (Note: not that either needs the other, its the users that will miss out).
I signed up, was worried my Gsuite email wasn’t going to be accepted so used a gmail account, which now has the option in GPay to Add a Myki card, it doesn’t look like I can transfer my existing Myki accross, so I’ll have to wait until my pass expires in just over 2 weeks time. I’ve also applied with my Gsuite account so hoping that works so I don’t have to keep switching between accounts in GPay.
i have a yearly pass, so can i participate ? signed up already
so i need to use google pay to use this?
Apple’s closed walled-garden philosophy is really going to come back to bite them hard.
Smartphones are the keys to the connected world we now live in. At the Consumer Electronics Show we saw Apple fail dismally, while Amazon and Google moved into connected devices… everything from toasters to air-conditioners.
iPhone users must be starting to realise they suffer reduced functionality.