Two years after the arrival of the Navigo pass on iPhone in 2024, Île-de-France Mobilités is preparing to complete its transport dematerialization offering by finally rolling out the Navigo Annual and Imagine R passes on smartphones in spring 2026. This step, initially planned for the end of 2025, marks a major advance for the approximately 2 million subscribers in the Paris region concerned. On November 20, 2025, Valérie Pécresse, president of Île-de-France Mobilités, inaugurated the new payment terminals on buses, allowing passengers to purchase a €2.50 "emergency ticket" without a connection. On this occasion, the organization indicated that it is currently studying the issue ofOpen Payment to eventually allow all forms of transport (metro, tram, RER) to be paid for with a bank card, with a verdict expected in April 2026.
The journey towards the complete dematerialization of transport tickets in the Paris region is continuing methodically. After initial tests in 2019 on Samsung smartphones, Île-de-France Mobilités extended the service to all Android phones in 2022, before extending it to iPhones in 2024. The launch of Navigo Liberté+ on smartphones in June 2025 was an important milestone, with more than 1.3 million users now enjoying this pay-as-you-go payment system.
The Passe Navigo Annuel, offered at €88.80 per month with the 12th month free, and the Imagine R pass, intended for students at €392.30 per year, represent a significant share of Île-de-France season tickets. Until now, only monthly and weekly passes were available on smartphones, as Île-de-France Mobilités wanted to give priority to passes requiring frequent renewals to avoid card blockages with 12-month passes.
The figures show a growing enthusiasm for mobile top-ups. According to Valérie Pécresse and representativesof Île-de-France Mobilités, a third of season tickets are now purchased via smartphone. The goal is ambitious: to exceed 50% by 2027. New records are being broken every month, with 7.7 million top-ups recorded in October 2025 alone.
Once the Navigo Annuel and Imagine R passes are available on smartphones in spring 2026, users will be able to store a digital copy of their pass in Apple Maps on iPhone and in the app of their choice on Android. This development should accelerate the digital transition by making the last remaining Navigo users eligible for smartphone passes.
Beyond the dematerialization of passes, Île-de-France Mobilités is currently evaluating the relevance of a generalizedOpen Payment system. This system, already adopted by cities such as Lyon, Rennes, and Toulouse, would allow travelers to use their contactless bank cards directly to access the entire Île-de-France transport network (metro, tram, RER), without having to purchase a ticket in advance.
The new payment terminals installed on buses since early November 2025 are a first step towards this change. However, the complexity of the Île-de-France network, with its millions of daily passengers and multiple connections, makes the implementation of such a system particularly challenging. The findings of this study will be released in April 2026.
This digital transition is part of a broader effort to modernize transportation in the Paris region, marked in particular by the end of paper tickets on November 5, 2025, and the introduction of new simplified fares since January 2025. For users, the message is clear: smartphones are gradually becoming an essential companion for travel in the Paris region.
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