The Vitale card application is now available to all French people who depend on Health Insurance and who have a France Identité account. We explain how to activate the dematerialized Vitale card, but also why it is still far from essential.
Our papers in physical format are increasingly entitled to their dematerialized version, available directly from your smartphone. This is now the case for the Vitale card, whose dedicated application has been officially launched after testing the digital Vitale card in several departments since 2023.
“From today, if you have a dematerialized identity with France Identité, you can also dematerialize your Vitale card”, says Guillaume Rozier, a computer engineer specializing in data, who has become an advisor to the President of the Republic since the success of his CovidTracker application.
How to use the digital Vitale card?
The prerequisite for using the dematerialized Vitale card is to have a France Identité account. To do this, you must have a new-generation identity card, in bank card format and equipped with a chip. Guillaume Rozier specifies that it will “soon be possible to renew your CNI early” to access services linked to France Identité even if your old-format CNI has not yet expired.
Here is the procedure to follow to activate your digital Vitale card:
- After downloadingthe application on the Play Storeorthe App Store, open it
- Then start the activation process in 5 steps
- Accept the general conditions of use and continue
- Now take your Vitale card (or your Social Security number), the email address used for your online account and your national identity card
- You can choose to scan your Vitale card via the Photo app on your smartphone (bugs may occur) or enter the numbers manually
- You will then receive a security code at the email address linked to your Health Insurance space
- Enter the 6-digit verification code
If you do not want to or cannot use France Identité, it is possible to do without it, by proving your identity by facial recognition, and only if you depend on the Health Insurance of one of the following departments :
- Ain
- Allier
- Alpes-de-Haute-Provence
- Ardèche
- Bas-Rhin
- Bouches-du-Rhône
- Cantal
- Drôme
- Hautes-Alpes
- Isère
- Loire
- Loire-Atlantique
- Puy-de-Dôme
- Rhône
- Saône-et-Loire
- Sarthe
- Savoie
- Seine-Maritime
- Var
- Vaucluse
There are still challenges for the mass adoption of the digital Vitale card
“Let’s encourage all healthcare professionals to quickly equip themselves with the necessary equipment to scan a QR Code,” adds Guillaume Rozier, who puts his finger on a problem. Don't expect to put your physical Vitale card in the back of a drawer thinking that it will no longer be useful, because the Vitale card application is far from being supported everywhere by health professionals, whether at doctors or in pharmacies. So keep your Vitale card in your wallet or handbag.
Many users also complain about the fact that you have to go through a dedicated application, which is not the most practical. An integration into France Identité, which would allow you to group all your documents in one place, is popular. "It's an avenue to explore", admits Guillaume Rozier. He therefore seems to imply that such a project is not currently in the works, and that we will have to be patient to hope for future support for the dematerialized Vitale card directly in France Identité.
Between the driving license, the bank card or even the transport and identity cards, all our documents are gradually arriving on our smartphones. For over a year, France Identité has supported the digital driving license for road checks. The transition is not always easy, however, particularly because of compatibility issues: new hardware is needed to be able to communicate with smartphones via NFC, for example.
We also remember a mess on the SNCF side, which shared contradictory signals regarding the acceptance of France Identité during ticket and identity checks. Finally, the France Identité application is accepted by the SNCF… but temporarily, while the company develops its own verification platform. Physical and dematerialized formats may coexist for some time before switching to all-digital.
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