Temple University introduces mobile app to function as student ID

Students and staff at Temple University in Philadelphia now can use a mobile app on their phones—either iPhones or Androids—to make purchases or gain entry to residence halls, dining and fitness facilities or other campus buildings.

The Temple News reports that the OwlCardMobile app enables students to sync their student ID with Apple Wallet or Google Pay and use their phones instead of their university ID card.

"This exciting innovation will make getting around campus even easier,” says Chief Information Officer Cindy Leavitt.

Besides the ease of using a phone instead of carrying an ID card, Temple officials say, the app is good for security, Phillynews.com reports. Fewer students losing their ID cards means fewer people picking up a card on the ground that has “Diamond Dollars” — money for food and other necessities — and access to residence halls programmed into it.

Students who lose their physical OWLcards must pay a $20 fee to replace it. But if students and faculty lose their mobile devices with the new app installed, they can go online to set the phone as missing, and the application will then erase the OWLcard credentials from the phone. Once the phone is either found or replaced, users can reactivate their OWLcards on their phones.

Temple spokesman Christopher Vito said regular ID cards will still work, so students without phones or those who would prefer not to sync their ID card with their device will still have the same access to campus buildings and services.

Students also can use the app to check balances and add money to their various accounts, including for dining, laundry and printing.