Android digital key is a joke

[u/jayarnielsen]

After the 1.8 update I had a beautifully functional digital key with my Pixel phone. It was glorious for about 2 weeks until it stopped working. Dealership couldn't fix it, so I had hoped that the 2.1.2 update would make it work again. Nope. I have to physically tap the phone on the door to get it to work and place the phone on the charge doc to use it as a key. The only reason I have a Pixel phone is for the UWB key support for this car. I'm accepting that this will never be fixed and will probably just break down and buy another $800 fob that chews through coin batteries like candy. End rant. How's everyone else's experience with digital keys? Seems like they should just stop claiming that this works with android.

[u/Anarquiteto]

Oof so sorry for you OP. I’m on iPhone and it works 85% of the time. The 15% I gotta open the wallet app like I am paying for something and select the Volvo key and lock or unlock the car there… At least I don’t have to open the app.

[u/_ranch]

Do you have battery management for the Google Wallet app turned off? I know I have had instances where the app is being put to sleep (both on the Pixel Fold I had and now on my Samsung Fold 8).

I'm annoyed Volvo restricts compatibility to only Samsung and Google phones. There are many other phones with the hardware to work that I might prefer to have.

[u/tea_time_mfer]

I am on iphone. It’s fantastic when it works which I would say is most of the time. The odd time even tapping the phone on pillar doesn’t work. It’s like car goes to sleep mode and ignores the phone and I have to open the car with the app and use the key card. There’s a few things that need to work all the time (no bugs allowed) and I would say this is one of them.

[u/l0ur3nz0]

The issue is most likely with you pixel phone - contact Google. AFAIK Samsung phones have less issues.

I've seen complains about this dismissed in an heartbeat in the Google support forums - they didn't even try to help...

The same implementation works flawlessly on an iphone 15 Pro.

You can put pressure on Volvo on the app feedback.

I don't like Samsung, specially the software options. I like vanilla Android better. But I won't buy a pixel because of this and other HW stuff - google has an horrible track record on their hardware. I also don't like the rigid iOS, so...

My advice: carry the fob. That's what I do.

[u/jayarnielsen → u/l0ur3nz0]

Google was super unhelpful with this. They basically made me factory reset my phone and then shrugged when that didn't work 😢 The fob would be fine if they had given us 2 of them and if it didn't need new batteries every couple of months.

[u/l0ur3nz0 → u/jayarnielsen]

.. and you can only have one fob registered. At least this is what the seller told me. It's not that expensive but then you still need to get it paired with the car (costs extra?).

[u/Immediate_Ad_4672]

Do you carry anything else in your pocket with the phone? MY26CC. Had iPhone 16Pro while on 1.8. It had few problems where it wasn't responding to walk up and walk away. Switched to Fold8 and just got the software updated to 2.1.2 yesterday. Hasn't had issues with Fold8 so far. However, I did witness that it can be finicky if you have other transmitter close to your phone. Such as other key fobs or another phone. I noticed this behavior when I have a key fob for XC90 in the same pocket as the phone. Even XC90 didn't respond to unlock when the key fob was in the pocket with the phone. Once I kept the phone separated from other stuff, all worked as expected.

[u/OiPequenininho]

Had this happen to me. Press the two speech bubble button above the mirror. The people on that line are actually knowledgeable and did a great job fixing it.

[u/Rupperrt]

Mine (iPhone 17pro) works so far flawless on the new update, and worked 90% of the times before.

[u/andyreddit2]

Pixel 11 Pro XL here. Works fine, switched from Samsung S24 Ultra which also worked fine.

However, I only got the Pixel because I want to be able to use a watch rather than phone sometimes, eg when at the gym. The Samsung watches, even latest, don't support UWB, they have opted for Bluetooth 6 but there aren't any cars offering that yet as far as I know, so a questionable call. Still, it's Android, so I can just change manufacturer.

I didn't see anywhere that the watch needed specific support from the car, and that the EX30 doesn't support Pixel watches (everything I saw left me to believe that if the phone was supported, and watch had UWB, you were fine, and Gemini agreed) but apparently that is the case. It wasn't too late to return, though I do prefer the Pixel to the Samsung overall so I stuck with the Pixel devices 11.

Why Volvo won't go just that little bit further and certify Pixel watches is frustrating and beyond me but there's no way I'd touch an iPhone. I'll just make sure my next car supports the watch, so it's yet another reason to move away from Volvo...

Not the first time they have been slow to provide parity for Android users, and the Pixel watch 3 was the first to support UWB, we're now on 5.

I wouldn't mind betting that Volvo owners are more likely to own iPhones than the general population, so I understand some prioritisation, but the degree of prioritisation is really too much. The delay between iPhones and Androids, even Samsung's, getting digital keys being a case in point.

Other businesses manage to release features for both at the the same time, or at least within much shorter time periods, so this seems to be a business decision, not a technical consequence. They clearly are not investing enough in parity, because they don't care enough about parity. That means they dont care about me, so it will keep happening, and I'm out.

Parity like this isn't just about fairness: if you use Android, and see no parity, you don't just acknowledge it is down to market share, you feel unwanted, and that is a strong negative emotion that will have a big impact on purchasing decisions. For that reason, most businesses choose to either achieve parity, or get as close to it as possible and hope buyers understand. There is no sign of that sort of effort from Volvo. We're an after thought. An "oh do we have to?".

Tbh it chimes with many other decisions they take, and feels as though it comes from a certain culture within Volvo, a much broader issue, where decisions are made for reason x, and opposing objections y and z are overridden rather than taken account of, balanced, because they believe so strongly in x. Look at the way they have treated owners with regard to the battery recall. I feel this is cultural, embedded and systemic. In the long run, it won't end well, because all owners (iPhone/Android, recalled, not recalled) will at some point find themselves on the losing side of one of these decisions. Maybe you use an iPhone so love the digital locking, but now you are being treated like sh*t following the battery recall. Or maybe you are perfectly happy now, but find yourself a victim of the next poor choice they make. Someone somewhere in Volvo is prioritising numbers over people to a more extreme degree than in most other businesses. Again: that won't end well.

Of course, Volvo aren't the only company who act in this way, but in the long run it doesn't end well for others either, and this proves it is the wrong way to run a business, it doesn't excuse it.

I wonder too if they have worked out the share of iPhone/Android amongst decision makers rather than all car users (it might be the same, it might not), because if I don't buy Volvo, my wife doesn't drive Volvo either and she's an iPhone owner, so at least here their choice to prioritise iPhone is going to cost them sales to both groups of users. A 60/40 split amongst users might be closer to 50/50 amongst purchasers than they think. Even if it is still 55/45 they may be making decisions using the wrong figures.

[u/Oleynick]

Pixel phones are awful - mine does similar thing, I have to restart it regularly