World Trade Center Among First To Replace Office Keys With Digital Apple Wallet

Apple Wallet, although known mostly as an alternative payment method, is beginning to see an expansion.

It’s not just storing debit cards and travel tickets anymore, but more important identification documents such as drivers’ licenses and, now, employee passes and office keys. This will replace where a card would normally be tapped to gain access to the space.  

Silverstein Properties, the real estate development firm behind the World Trade Center, made an announcement Tuesday that it would begin rolling out this feature to its tenants. This makes the World Trade Center one of the first to introduce support for the new iOS 15 Wallet function. 

Users with an iPhone, Apple Watch, or both, will be able to add and access their employee badges from the Wallet app. This acts as a regular access card, allowing them to enter office buildings, tenant floors, and amenity spaces. 

After initial setup via Silverstein’s Inspire app, users will be able to use the pass immediately instead of having to wait for a physical card to be made and delivered. 

Silverstein states in a press release that this feature enables more security and privacy, because the data is stored on individual phones instead of a cloud server. It’ll also benefit from the security features Apple has already implemented into Wallet. 

An example of space management is also given, made easier with virtual badge management. Silverstein will be able to control who can access the space and at what time, so sharing spaces will also become less confusing. 

For example, one company could use an office on Mondays and Tuesdays, while another uses it the rest of the week. The second company wouldn’t be able to access the space on those two first days of the week.

The new digital key will be first introduced at the 7 World Trade Center, New York. Following this, it’ll also be implemented across other Silverstein offices in New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles.

[via 9to5Mac and PhoneArena, image via Silverstein Properties]