Phone as key, who does it best?

[ChrisO]

Yes.

I use both because I almost always have keys with me (for work key, home key etc). And I always have my phone with me.

I like to use PAAK sometimes when I go to the gym so I don’t have to carry my keys.

I'm going to have to do more testing (more because I'm curious than anything else) and see if my theory of why PAAK didn't work right for me is because I was carrying both. I now have a faraday pouch that I can use to "hide" the FOB and use only the PAAK and be able to test and still have the FOB for (just in case).

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[jh2021]

Well, on BMWs you have to hold the phone to the door handle to unlock the door. Then you have to put the phone on the charger to start the car. So NOT them

Had a Mach E for 4 years before selling to my son. I just bought a BMW IX - They actually have 2 levels of PAAK. With Certain Iphone, Samsung and Google phones, the PAAK works just the same as the Mach E. I do miss the keypad on the door - I always used it to get into the car in the garage when I didn't have my phone with me - not sure why this isn't standard or optional on all cars.

 

[ChrisO]

Had a Mach E for 4 years before selling to my son. I just bought a BMW IX - They actually have 2 levels of PAAK. With Certain Iphone, Samsung and Google phones, the PAAK works just the same as the Mach E. I do miss the keypad on the door - I always used it to get into the car in the garage when I didn't have my phone with me - not sure why this isn't standard or optional on all cars.

The keypad is an interesting thing in it is more "legacy" than modern, and that might be why a company like Ford has it and others don't.

I remember when they became popular, and also when they faded out of popularity.

 

[Space_Pony]

The keypad is an interesting thing in it is more "legacy" than modern, and that might be why a company like Ford has it and others don't.

I remember when they became popular, and also when they faded out of popularity.

If it works, who cares if it's popular.

 

[ChrisO]

I'm going to have to do more testing (more because I'm curious than anything else) and see if my theory of why PAAK didn't work right for me is because I was carrying both. I now have a faraday pouch that I can use to "hide" the FOB and use only the PAAK and be able to test and still have the FOB for (just in case).

I just set PAAK up again, and I might have found what was my initial problem. I found that my phone had the battery usage set to "Optimized based on usage" instead of always on.

I will have to try it for a while and see what happens (both with the FOB and without it). It is opening on the first try for the couple of test tries I did with just PAAK. One thing I do notice is that it takes me getting a bit farther away from the car with PAAK for it to lock the car than it does with the FOB. But the fact that it sends a notice to my phone and I hear that it is nice. I turned off the honk for this because I didn't want to disturb the neighbors when I park in the garage (I wish there was to disable the honk based on location).

It also occurs to me whereas when I get home, I put my keys/FOB in a room far from the garage, the same can't be said of my phone which is usually in my pocket. I will have to test if me walking around a close room is waking the car up.

 

[SonicBlue]

It’s not a problem unless you’re in a hurry to get in the car because it’s raining.

Correct. Scientifically proven.

 

[AliRafiee]

Had a Mach E for 4 years before selling to my son. I just bought a BMW IX - They actually have 2 levels of PAAK. With Certain Iphone, Samsung and Google phones, the PAAK works just the same as the Mach E. I do miss the keypad on the door - I always used it to get into the car in the garage when I didn't have my phone with me - not sure why this isn't standard or optional on all cars.

What year is yours? We have 23 i4

I guess we are missing the Plus version.

Well, here is the lowdown. If the BMW comes with the key on the right, then the car as the Plus version. If it’s the left one, it’s the regular version. (Ours is that one)

 

[ChrisO]

I just did the test to see if the car would turn on while walking around my house and it doesn't, but I also noticed something, and I was wondering if this new or limited to a certain year of the car (mine being a 2025).

With the car in my garage where is it reasonably dark. If I turn off the car and close the door and walk away it locks. Now if I approach it the lights turn on, including the welcome/puddle lights. If I now walk away, and the light turn off. The next time I come to the car the lights don't turn on. I have to start the car and then leave and come back again for the lights to come on.

I'm wondering if they changed this just for the possible problem where you might be walking back and forth around your car and draining the 12-volt battery.

 

[Space_Pony]

I just did the test to see if the car would turn on while walking around my house and it doesn't, but I also noticed something, and I was wondering if this new or limited to a certain year of the car (mine being a 2025).

With the car in my garage where is it reasonably dark. If I turn off the car and close the door and walk away it locks. Now if I approach it the lights turn on, including the welcome/puddle lights. If I now walk away, and the light turn off. The next time I come to the car the lights don't turn on. I have to start the car and then leave and come back again for the lights to come on.

I'm wondering if they changed this just for the possible problem where you might be walking back and forth around your car and draining the 12-volt battery.

I have a 23 model and it behaves the same as your 25.

 

[jh2021]

What year is yours? We have 23 i4

I guess we are missing the Plus version.

Well, here is the lowdown. If the BMW comes with the key on the right, then the car as the Plus version. If it’s the left one, it’s the regular version. (Ours is that one)

 

[jh2021]

Ours is a 2025 with the digital key plus. It also has a credit card that can be used to unlock and start the car, but requires touching it to the door and setting it in the phone charger tray to start. That said, there are a lot of things about the Mach E that I prefer over the BMW, but the ride quality is much better in the BMW - which was my only real complaint with the Mach E.

 

[Nuf@n]

I guess I feel a bit better knowing that pretty much everyone is having this issue and that there’s nothing we can do about it… We bought an MME Premium AWD two weeks ago. I have an S22 Ultra, and the PAAK system works maybe 50% of the time at best. I’ve tried everything on the phone, including reinstalling the app and even using Tasker to relaunch it when it closes. Nothing helps.


When we purchased the car, I thought the door keypad was a nice emergency backup. Now I realize it’s actually necessary half the time. Some people say it works after a couple of attempts, but I often have enough time to enter the door code and still can’t start the car because it doesn’t detect the key. When it does finally detect my phone, the car seems to try connecting to the last phone that was used, even if mine is paired to my profile. So if my wife was the last driver and she’s in the house within Bluetooth range, the car connects to her phone instead. What a mess.


In my opinion, electric vehicles are 50% car, 50% computer. Ford clearly knows how to build the car part, but the software side is a joke. I’m pretty disappointed with my purchase and honestly wish I had leased instead. Hopefully they fix these issues with an update, but based on what I’ve been reading, it doesn’t seem like things have improved much since the car launched.


I also own a 2024 Model 3 LR and have never had a single PAAK issue. It just works 100% of the time, same with my wife’s budget Galaxy A54. People like to complain about Tesla, but honestly, their software is years ahead of this.

 

[hedgehog99]

OP here. After I humble bragged about PAAK now working for me most of time with a little patience, the success rate of the door recognizing my phone in the pocket has really tanked since the original post. I guess it's karma, so I will stop complimenting the car lest it decides to teach me another lesson about optimism.

 

[ChrisO]

For I'm going back to the using the FOB. PAAK was working pretty well for me for about a week or so but then I noticed that it started missing here and there especially if I was in and out the car in a short period of time. I have carried the FOB around for a bit more than a year without any problems, I so it really just isn't that important to me to make PAAK work.

 

[circatee]

Curious, with PaaK, when you walk up to the car, do BOTH the front doors unlock if the door button is pressed?

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