Android users will finally be able to use their phones to pay for Metro train and bus rides. The transit agency and Google Pay are launching the service today.

The new SmarTrip app gives riders the ability to create a new digital SmarTrip card or transfer their physical card to Google’s digital wallet. But if you transfer your plastic card to digital, it will deactivate the physical card. 

The digital cards are placed in the G Pay Wallet and then be used like any other SmarTrip card by tapping the phone near the fare gate target. You need to wake the screen, but don’t need to unlock the phone to tap to pay.

“Once you put (your SmarTrip card) on your Android, you walk up and you tap it and you go,” Metro General Manager Paul Wiedefeld said. 

Wiedefeld says the technology is an investment in the future of Metro.

Apple iPhone users have been able to use their phones as a SmarTrip card for nearly 10 months. The pandemic and other issues delayed the Android rollout, Wiedefield said. “These things are complicated,” he said. With services online for both Apple and Android, Metro says most of its riders have access to mobile payment. About 93% of riders have smartphones, Metro says.

Metro says it was the first transit agency to have Apple mobile pay comparability systemwide and the second agency to have both Apple and Android activated.

Riders can reload cards or buy passes on the phone and swipe into train stations and buses without having to touch fare machines. 

Android users can find the app by searching for SmarTrip in the Google Play store. Metro is waiving the $2 SmarTrip card fee for all Android users purchasing a virtual SmarTrip card during the first six months.

In addition to Metrorail, Metrobus, and Metro-operated parking lots and garages, riders have the option to pay with a phone anywhere SmarTrip is accepted including at other regional transit agencies like ART, DASH, Fairfax Connector, Cue, Ride On, TheBus, Circulator, Loudoun County Transit, and OmniRide.

The SmarTrip app is available on phones running Android 9 and newer.