You can now check in and fly out of Dubai's airport with just your phone as ID
Need ID while traveling out of Dubai? There's an app for that.
UAE Wallet is a new app now available on the Apple App Store and could replace physical identification documents for United Arab Emirates residents flying out of Dubai and other airports.
With the app, users are able to register their passport, ID, and visa information into UAE Wallet. Then, once at the airport, users just show the accompanying barcode that comes up in the app. The barcode is then scanned along with a fingerprint so you can go through "smart" UAE airport gates. Officials said it should be about a 10 second process, according to Gulf News.
For now the app can only be used at the Dubai Airport, which is where the government agency, the General Directorate of Residency and Foreigners Affairs in Dubai, launched the new mobile check-in app this week, at Terminal 3 with Emirates airlines. More airlines are expected to start using the app in the future.
It's an efficient new way to check-in for a flight, and government officials seem to think the app is invincible, as reported by Gulf News, which covered the launch event.
“The application is safe and has security checks. The developers said it is impossible to hack or misuse the application,” said Lt. General Dahi Khalfan Tamim, deputy chairman of police and public security.
That said, any apps and systems, especially a biometric system like the fingerprint check-in, are susceptible to attacks, so this seems a bit hyperbolic. There's no such thing as a hack-proof system, even if the new technology will speed things up.
Pack that passport just in case...
Sasha is a news writer at Mashable's San Francisco office. She's an SF native who went to UC Davis and later received her master's from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism. She's been reporting out of her hometown over the years at Bay City News (news wire), SFGate (the San Francisco Chronicle website), and even made it out of California to write for the Chicago Tribune. She's been described as a bookworm and a gym rat.
