Geokey 4+

Infinitely worse than keys but occasionally works

The apartment I live at moved all tenants to this system and now requires this app to enter all rooms in the building, including my unit. I would give this app a 1.5 out of 5.0, which I’ve generously rounded up to 2.

In short, the app usually takes 10-30 seconds to connect to the electronic locks. But it occasionally connects right away, so I bumped it up a star.

Here’s what I want as a resident who needs this every day:

1. Add key to Apple wallet (or something that allows me to just tap my phone to the lock)

2. A way to favorite the doors I frequently use and to hide the ones I don’t. My building has 20+ community doors, so having to scroll and sift through tens of extraneous ones

3. Better integration with Shortcuts so I can create my own ways to streamline the unlocking process

To be clear, this is bad enough that I want to break lease and move.

Developer Response ,

Hi Kevin, we are sorry to hear about your experience with Geokey so far. In the app, we do have the ability for users to favorite doors and give them nicknames in the app and our support team would be happy to help uounsey this up!

Not Geo anything

If you are going to name an app “Geo***” surely it should use some kind of location intelligence. The concept of being able to use a phone to unlock things is great, and I am able to unlock my car that way. I don’t have to take the phone out of my pocket, I just walk up to the car and it recognizes my phone and the handles obediently pop out. It seems to be secure, and the operation is completely automatic. Let’s compare that implementation with the “Geo”key implementation. As I approach a door that I need to unlock: I have to reach for the phone in my pocket I have turn on and log into my phone I have to find the app and launch it I have to log into the app I have to search through a long list of doors to find the one I am standing right next to I have to click on the door I have to wait for it to unlock I there is an error I have to loop back 3 steps and try again 3 or 4 times If I am lucky, I can open the door This compared to my car: I walk up to my car and open the door I know you have the technology to implement what my car can do. So why not?? Finally, the cheap plastic door locks don’t instill a lot of confidence in their security. They look like something from the 80s.

The response says that the door would unlock when I am inside the apartment. This issue can be solved by having the inside manual lock override the external automatic lock. You only need the BT unlock feature when opening from the outside. This is also the same for a car.

Developer Response ,

Sorry to hear that you have been having such a rough time with the Geokey app! You should not need to constantly log into the app, and we also have ways to set up widgets on your phone so you do not need to open the app to open a door. As for your question about why the system does not operate similarly to a car with a digital key, if your phone was in your home near enough to your door it would automatically unlock during times you did not want it to be unlocked. That is why we require user interaction to open a door with Geokey. If you have any questions about setting up the Geokey widget, please reach out to our support team who would be happy to help you.
You can contact them 24/7 directly through the Geokey app, by email at support@geokeyaccess.com, or by phone at 888-348-9905

Would NOT recommend

My apartment complex transitioned to GeoKey a few months ago. While the idea is great, the implementation and execution are awful. It doesn’t work if you don’t have reception (so keep in mind your underground parking). While there is a pin pad and a pin option on our unit doors, sometimes it takes 6+ times before your apartment door will unlock, as it just continues to say ‘operation failed’. Last night I took my dog out and ended up stuck outside of my apartment building at 3:27 AM because I was receiving an error message. Luckily we have butterfly at our front door so I ultimately was able to get in. Thanks Butterfly.

I’m sorry, but it’s not an option for your operating system to fail when you provide access to people’s homes. You don’t hand someone the keys to their home and tell them “here is your key, it’ll work sometimes.”

To be clear the app is still not working for me. I issued a complaint and sent a screenshot of the error message. Their support team told me to check XYZ settings, which were all already in place. Then they proceeded to asked me if I’m at the door, LOL. They have some serious development to do on this app/entire operating system before it’ll execute correctly. Strongly DO NOT recommend.