How Mobile Is a Step Up from Badges, But Still Stuck at the Door

For decades, physical access has relied on badges. They were cheap to issue, easy to use, and became the de facto standard for enterprise and campus security. But badges also created headaches: they get lost, forgotten, cloned, and shared.

Enter mobile credentials. By putting access into the phone, organizations hoped to eliminate the hassle of lost badges and reduce operational overhead. For employees and students, using a phone to open doors feels natural — the same device they use to pay, travel, or unlock their car.

On the surface, mobile credentials are a big step forward. But dig deeper and the technology is built on the same stagnant foundation as badges: proximity-based readers that are unintelligent at the edge.

Why Mobile Credentials Appeal to Organizations? 

There’s no denying the pull. Security teams see real advantages:

• Fewer forgotten badges: At scale, lost badge incidents consume thousands of guard hours, and cost enterprises $150 per badge. Mobile credentials help eliminate that burden.
• User demand: Students and younger employees increasingly expect their phone to act as their ID. According to industry surveys, two thirds of organizations have already deployed mobile credentials, and another third plan to.
• Operational fit: As more institutions adopt digital wallets and mobile authentication, it feels like a natural extension to bring building access into the same ecosystem.

These benefits explain why universities and large enterprises are piloting mobile credentials, and why vendors are rushing to capitalize on the trend.

The Limitations of Mobile at the Door Access

But despite the promise, mobile credentials inherit the same core flaws as badges.

• Still proximity-based: Mobile readers verify that a valid credential was presented, not that the right person presented it. Phones can still be lost, stolen, or shared.
• No tailgating detection: Just like badges, mobile readers do nothing to stop someone from following an authorized user through the door.
• Closed ecosystems: Many mobile credential offerings tie organizations into vendor lock-in, requiring proprietary readers and costly recurring license fees.
• Lack of industry standards: While many mobile credentials build on badge-based technologies like MiFare DESFire or SEOS, the standards are still evolving. Emerging protocols like PKOC and Aliro aim to drive convergence, but until the market stabilizes, organizations face real risks from fragmentation, shifting formats, and constant change.

At the end of the day, today’s mobile credentials are an incomplete invention. They address one side of the equation (credentials) but the reader remains unintelligent and more a repackaging of the same old proximity model based on old standards.

The Reader Remains Unintelligent

This is the crux of the issue: badges, PINs, and now mobile all rely on unintelligent edge devices. They confirm that something was presented, but they never confirm that the right someone is at the door. They don’t adapt, they don’t learn, and they don’t see what happens beyond the swipe or tap.

Security leaders know this is a problem. As one industry analysis noted, “Mobile credentials are proliferating, but the landscape remains expensive, complex, and restricted to those locked into closed ecosystems”.

Comparing Access Approaches

Moving Beyond the Credential

Mobile credentials are a step up from badges. They reduce some operational friction. But they do not solve the fundamental problem of identity at the door. That requires intelligence: the ability to verify who is entering in real time and whether they are entering alone.

That’s why the industry is already looking to what comes next. Biometrics, particularly facial authentication, are gaining traction not just as a second factor but as a primary credential. Unlike mobile or badges, someone’s face cannot be lost, cloned, or shared. Combined with AI-driven liveness detection and tailgating prevention, it addresses the vulnerabilities that proximity-based systems cannot.

The Path Ahead

Mobile credentials represent progress, but not the end state. They point us away from plastic badges and toward digital identity. Yet by themselves, they leave organizations stuck with the same outdated devices at the door and the same blind spots that attackers exploit.

The future of access control is not about what you carry, whether a badge or a phone. It’s about who you are. And that shift will define the next generation of secure, seamless, and scalable identity systems. Step into the future of access control - schedule a demo today.