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Technical Topics iDrive, Nav, Phone, Audio, Video, Cameras, Electronics Understanding the phone as a Digital Key

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      10-04-2019, 03:59 PM   #1
richardvinger
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Understanding the phone as a Digital Key

Great joining you all on this forum! I took delivery of my G20/330i this morning. It's been a joy so far, but I'm struggling to understand how to use my phone as a Digital Key. Wondering what your experiences are:
  1. Officially, the Digital Key on phones is only supported on certain Samsung devices, which is close to outrageous. Has anyone succeeded in making other Android devices work as a Digital Key?
  2. When I try adding a Digital Key, iDrive tells me to put my phone on the wireless charging pad. When I do that (a Pixel 3), nothing happens for about a minute, and a "transmission error" or something similar appears. Instead, I would have expected an error like "unsupported device", rather than the system timing out. Has anyone seen other, more appropriate errors?
  3. Let's say we follow the supported route and use a Samsung device. Will that device require the Connected Drive app to be installed in order to be used as a Digital Key?

I'll continue tinkering, but hopefully your experiences will be helpful!
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      10-04-2019, 04:30 PM   #2
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They key is stored on a secure element, which only can be found at certain phones. Samsung happens to have a couple that support this..

I expect the CD app is required to write the digital key on the secure element.
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      10-04-2019, 07:15 PM   #3
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My Samsung doesn't work since I am on Verizon. Note 9
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      10-07-2019, 12:32 PM   #4
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
Great joining you all on this forum! I took delivery of my G20/330i this morning. It's been a joy so far, but I'm struggling to understand how to use my phone as a Digital Key. Wondering what your experiences are:
  1. Officially, the Digital Key on phones is only supported on certain Samsung devices, which is close to outrageous. Has anyone succeeded in making other Android devices work as a Digital Key?
  2. When I try adding a Digital Key, iDrive tells me to put my phone on the wireless charging pad. When I do that (a Pixel 3), nothing happens for about a minute, and a "transmission error" or something similar appears. Instead, I would have expected an error like "unsupported device", rather than the system timing out. Has anyone seen other, more appropriate errors?
  3. Let's say we follow the supported route and use a Samsung device. Will that device require the Connected Drive app to be installed in order to be used as a Digital Key?

I'll continue tinkering, but hopefully your experiences will be helpful!
Yes, CD app needs to be installed and a digital key is sent by BMW and stored securely on the device.
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      10-07-2019, 06:28 PM   #5
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Quote:
Originally Posted by richardvinger View Post
Great joining you all on this forum! I took delivery of my G20/330i this morning. It's been a joy so far, but I'm struggling to understand how to use my phone as a Digital Key. Wondering what your experiences are:
  1. Officially, the Digital Key on phones is only supported on certain Samsung devices, which is close to outrageous. Has anyone succeeded in making other Android devices work as a Digital Key?
  2. When I try adding a Digital Key, iDrive tells me to put my phone on the wireless charging pad. When I do that (a Pixel 3), nothing happens for about a minute, and a "transmission error" or something similar appears. Instead, I would have expected an error like "unsupported device", rather than the system timing out. Has anyone seen other, more appropriate errors?
  3. Let's say we follow the supported route and use a Samsung device. Will that device require the Connected Drive app to be installed in order to be used as a Digital Key?

I'll continue tinkering, but hopefully your experiences will be helpful!
richardvinger ,
Well, I have a Samsung S8 and have finally got it to work as a digital key on my M340.

I tried what the owner's manual lays out, as well as the "Quick Start Guide" that's up on the BMW USA owner's page -- all to no avail.

I had to go to my dealer for something else. While there, I asked their "Genius" and she took me over to my Service Advisor, who found an instruction from BMW and using my regular key fob did something on their end (all in the BMW USA database) that really enabled my phone.

I now can unlock my car by placing my phone next to the driver's door handle "hot spot" and operate the car with my phone in the wireless charger.

BTW, I do have the BMW Connected App on my phone and it now show my phone with a digital key; the App is actually useful with the new iDrives (as opposed to neqar useless on my F30)

So my advice is to go to a BMW dealer get them to enable your phone as a digital key at their end.

Hope that helps!
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      10-08-2019, 12:12 PM   #6
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Quote:
Originally Posted by RSnic View Post
richardvinger ,
Well, I have a Samsung S8 and have finally got it to work as a digital key on my M340.

I tried what the owner's manual lays out, as well as the "Quick Start Guide" that's up on the BMW USA owner's page -- all to no avail.

I had to go to my dealer for something else. While there, I asked their "Genius" and she took me over to my Service Advisor, who found an instruction from BMW and using my regular key fob did something on their end (all in the BMW USA database) that really enabled my phone.

I now can unlock my car by placing my phone next to the driver's door handle "hot spot" and operate the car with my phone in the wireless charger.

BTW, I do have the BMW Connected App on my phone and it now show my phone with a digital key; the App is actually useful with the new iDrives (as opposed to neqar useless on my F30)

So my advice is to go to a BMW dealer get them to enable your phone as a digital key at their end.

Hope that helps!
It only works for Samsung phones and i think only S8, 9, 10 and Note 9, 10.
Not pixel or other Androids
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      10-09-2019, 12:31 AM   #7
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Here it's explained in detail:



And here you can see how to share it:



The reason why it doesn't work with any cat is because it needs a special NFC feature to be supported. Check these forums, since that has been addressed before elsewhere.

Last edited by eddiehaug; 10-09-2019 at 12:35 AM.. Reason: Typos
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