Physical smart cards are so old-fashioned and, well, physical. At least when it comes to mobile devices. Carrying a smart card and smart card reader with your iPhone or Android device really interferes with your TikTok cred. That’s what the kids are calling it, right?
We introduced support for derived credentials a couple of years ago with our Horizon Clients for iOS, Android and Windows. Since then, we’ve improved the feature by adding support for Charismathics and ActivClient middleware. We’ve had an enthusiastic response from customers as they migrate to this easy-to-use strategy of local, expiring certificates. No more hardware to carry!
Based on this feedback, we’re going to drop support for physical smart cards in the Horizon Client for iOS and Android in our next release.
But before we do, we want to get one last good build with the latest software from our longtime partner Biometric Associates. The Horizon Clients for iOS and Android version 5.4 have the latest baiMobile SDKs. One effect of this is that users will have to upgrade to baiMobile Credentials to use a physical smart card reader with their Android device and Horizon Client 5.4, available in the Google Play store for $9.99. Users do not need to install any additional software for the Horizon Client for iOS.
I hope you enjoy moving to virtual smart cards much as I am enjoying my virtual office, virtual work-mates and virtual Zumba classes.
