Digital Key, What are Your Impressions?

[BTOR]

Rivian finally pushed me the .46.30 update. I now have the digital key option. Before I decide whether or not to implement, I wanted to hear back from folks who have been using it for a few weeks on their Rivian and their first hand experience between the BT App and the Digital Key.

From what I understand, once you implement it, you lose the BT App lock/unlock feature. Are there other BT App features lost when the DK is enabled (like crack windows, open hood and tail gates, etc.)? Are the Rivian settings for "home proximity" still functioning the same (for example, lock only, do not unlock when at home). If so, how do you unlock when you are at home with the DK? Currently, I open the App and unlock the vehicle or I use a card key. Without the BT App function, is my only option to use the card key at home or do I have to open my phone wallet and select the digital key?

It seems to me the only advantage to the digital key is if your phone battery goes dead, you can still use your phone to operate the vehicle. Close to 30 years carrying a mobile device and I have never had a dead phone battery . This is just not a concern of mine. The proximity unlock with the BT app is a bit sluggish or doesn't work well if your phone is blocked (like in your back pocket) but honestly, that is so low on my concern list, it really isn't an issue for me.

I would say my number one gripe with the BT App is when I'm parked and away from home. The vehicle will continually lock/unlock each time I get within BT range. Even when the App is not open. I have a few situations where this happens and it does get annoying.

Thank you in advance for your opinions and comments!

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[higrob]

It has worked flawlessly for me. You can still lock/unlock with the app by clicking on the lock or unlock buttons on the home page of the app. The digital key just seems to take the place of the proximity locking/unlocking functions and also gives you the ability to text a digital key to someone else so that they can drive the car if needed. It took me two attempts to get the key set up but once I got it working it has really been great.

 

[rogersmj]

I'm so glad to have it because proximity unlock now works 100% of the time. With the Bluetooth key, it only worked about 30% of the time (my Tesla has always worked flawlessly with Bluetooth, but not the Rivian).

No loss of app functionality, that all still uses Bluetooth and/or IP (via cloud).

 

[tbinmd]

no going back to the BT/App for me. The digital key always works when I walk up to the truck, no longer looking to pull my phone out. The way it should have been from day one. Also nice to have the digital key on my watch, now I don’t even need to look for my phone if I need to run out to the driveway to get something our of my R1T.

 

[TTedP]

Rivian finally pushed me the .46.30 update. I now have the digital key option. Before I decide whether or not to implement, I wanted to hear back from folks who have been using it for a few weeks on their Rivian and their first hand experience between the BT App and the Digital Key.

Not flawless perfection, there are still some delays for me time to time - but it has 100% been working better than PAAK did on an iPhone 17 and iOS 26. Upgrade away.

 

[iamnid]

You don't lose any or the app functions. For me, the phone as a key is now much more reliable than it was before. I actually haven't had it fail once in the month (or thereabouts) since upgrading.

 

[BTOR]

Not flawless perfection, there are still some delays for me time to time - but it has 100% been working better than PAAK did on an iPhone 17 and iOS 26. Upgrade away.

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Lots to “mull” over. The BT performance variability from one user to the next fascinates me. Personally, the BT App has worked just fine. I just replaced my iPhone SE 2nd Gen on iOS18 with an iPhone 14 Pro on iOS26. So far so good.

Today was my first drive with 46.30 running the vehicle. Only function missing was the yellow garage door open/close feature. That’s disappeared on previous updates but after a soft reset it returns. Today, it came back on its own when I pulled into the driveway .

The autonomy+ UHF worked pretty well driving through town. Interesting it does notice stoplights and warns you but obviously doesn’t react to them. I definitely had my hands hovering over the wheel and my foot over the brake. I guess I’m just old school .

 

[losercore]

Rivian finally pushed me the .46.30 update. I now have the digital key option. Before I decide whether or not to implement, I wanted to hear back from folks who have been using it for a few weeks on their Rivian and their first hand experience between the BT App and the Digital Key.

From what I understand, once you implement it, you lose the BT App lock/unlock feature. Are there other BT App features lost when the DK is enabled (like crack windows, open hood and tail gates, etc.)? Are the Rivian settings for "home proximity" still functioning the same (for example, lock only, do not unlock when at home). If so, how do you unlock when you are at home with the DK? Currently, I open the App and unlock the vehicle or I use a card key. Without the BT App function, is my only option to use the card key at home or do I have to open my phone wallet and select the digital key?

It seems to me the only advantage to the digital key is if your phone battery goes dead, you can still use your phone to operate the vehicle. Close to 30 years carrying a mobile device and I have never had a dead phone battery . This is just not a concern of mine. The proximity unlock with the BT app is a bit sluggish or doesn't work well if your phone is blocked (like in your back pocket) but honestly, that is so low on my concern list, it really isn't an issue for me.

I would say my number one gripe with the BT App is when I'm parked and away from home. The vehicle will continually lock/unlock each time I get within BT range. Even when the App is not open. I have a few situations where this happens and it does get annoying.

Thank you in advance for your opinions and comments!

 

[losercore]

I’ve had absolutely zero issues—it’s worked flawlessly, and I love it. I almost made this a separate post, but I’m curious what others have experienced. For those who also use an Apple Watch as a key, do you feel like it works better than using just the phone? Totally anecdotal, but it seems like the door unlocks sooner when I’m wearing the watch, especially when my phone is in my pocket. It feels like the watch might give an extra advantage with Apple Car Key.

The only reason I noticed this was after a full day of hiking when my watch went into low-battery mode. That was the one time since the update that I had to take my phone out of my pocket and wait a second or two for the door to unlock. Curious if others have noticed the same thing—with or without a watch.

 

[TLDR_71]

Everything I expected from a digital key. It’s worked flawlessly since enabling.

 

[ElGuano]

In terms of user satisfaction, the BT key is like 50 out of 100 for me. The digital key is 99/100.

It's much more accurate, you can pretty much measure with a rule how far you need to be for the car to lock/unlock via proximity. And it is much better about detecting where the key is around the vehicle (fewer accidental locks as I walk around the back) and inside.

I've run into one bug - yesterday the car wouldn't shift into Drive and said the "key not detected in vehicle" even though I had my phone in my pocket. I had to open the Rivian app but as soon as I did, everything worked. That's the only time it's happened to me.

 

[Rade]

Neither my phone nor my watch support UWB, so I am unable to use this function. Perhaps some day.

 

[BTOR]

In my original post one of my questions was how do you unlock your vehicle when parked at you selected “home” location if you have proximity set to “lock at home only”? Currently using BT, I‘m forced to use the App or a card key. Obviously this prevents the vehicle from unlocking every time I come close to it with my phone. This is obviously preferred. How do you unlock with the DK?

 

[DuncIT]

Neither my phone nor my watch support UWB, so I am unable to use this function. Perhaps some day.

My phone, Motorola Razr Ultra 25, supports UWB but I don't have the option either.

 

[Woo]

Thank you everyone for your feedback. Lots to “mull” over. The BT performance variability from one user to the next fascinates me. Personally, the BT App has worked just fine. I just replaced my iPhone SE 2nd Gen on iOS18 with an iPhone 14 Pro on iOS26. So far so good.

Today was my first drive with 46.30 running the vehicle. Only function missing was the yellow garage door open/close feature. That’s disappeared on previous updates but after a soft reset it returns. Today, it came back on its own when I pulled into the driveway .

The autonomy+ UHF worked pretty well driving through town. Interesting it does notice stoplights and warns you but obviously doesn’t react to them. I definitely had my hands hovering over the wheel and my foot over the brake. I guess I’m just old school .

This was my experience. As long as my phone screen was on in some way, truck unlocked without any issues, now it's perfect. Phone in pocket door unlocks. It's great.

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