United Airlines now supports Live Activities on the iPhone, enabling passengers to have real-time access to their boarding pass, gate and seat number, and countdown clock to departure time without opening the United app and whether the phone is locked or unlocked.
United Airlines Partners With Apple To Offer Flight Info On iPhone Via Live Activities
According to United, in aggregate passengers pull up their boarding pass or check flight status on an iPhone over 800,000 times per day. In its latest iOS, Apple has unveiled Live Activities, a tool intended for people to see live information at a glance on both the iPhone Lock Screen and on what Apple calls the Dynamic Island, an innovation of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max, that replaces the black “notch” at the top of the phone with a more functional display of both active and background tasks (more info on that here).
The new United software will allow passengers to view a number of key features on the expanded Dynamic Island or Lock Screen without ever opening the United app:
- Boarding pass
- Flight number, on-time status, inbound aircraft status, estimated departure and arrival times
- Departure and arrival gates, pre- and in-flight countdowns, and baggage carousel information
(While boarding passes in the Wallet app also display gate and seat number with barcode to board, sometimes they are slow to update in the case of irregular operations or seat changes)
Linda Jojo, Chief Customer Officer for United, explained:
“We’re seeing soaring demand for travel this summer, and Live Activities puts all the flight information you need right at your fingertips, whether your iPhone is locked or you’re doing something else like checking email, listening to music or texting friends. This new feature is another way United is leveraging technology to improve our customers’ travel journey. It’s going to save passengers a lot of time, and we think they’re going to love it, especially during a busy travel season.”
To experience the new features, passengers should be running iOS 16.1 or later and ensure the United app is updated.
CONCLUSION
I appreciate the potential of being able to view all relevant information on the Lock Screen without ever having to open the United app or even unlock the phone. Ultimately, this will be a time-saver and the real-time timer should help fewer people to miss their flights.
Wow, something innovative from an airline. What is this….. Now if AA would get into the act and not limit to apple garbage.
Love it. UA continues to have the most innovative tech. Ball’s in your court, AA and DL.
I want your take on the St. Regis Chicago Elite Breakfast Fiasco.
Yes sir. I’ll post some thoughts tomorrow. In short, it shows the importance of pushing back. Was a very scummy move by the hotel in the first place and I’m thankful they were called on it.
This looks awesome, wish I had this for my flight yesterday! UA continues to lead the way on the tech side.
I don’t need to do anything to enable it do it, it automatically comes up if I have the UA app open right? Lyft and Uber have something similar and I didn’t enable either of those so assume not.
True, it asks your permission to run. Afterwards it consistently updates itself. I use it Friday on my flight from Dulles to Japan. I got a countdown for boarding, take off , and landing. I’m on an iPhone X so it displayed on the lower part of my screen.