Is the mandatory possession of a suitable smartphone really a prerequisite to entering Thailand these days?

[Travis179]

When I arrived in late April, nobody asked to see the app. Or whether I even had a smart phone. Nor at any point during my stay. BKK immigration reviewed my paperwork with a microscope, but never asked to see the ThailandPlus app (I did have it). It wouldn't work at all on any of my Android phones. I could download it, but it kept crashing. Was finally able to successfully install on my Ipad Air, where it worked just fine. 

[HeijoshinCool]

1 hour ago, Travis179 said:

Exactly. My ASQ required us to download the Line app when we checked-in. They used this to take daily meal orders, and twice daily temp readings (10 AM & 2 PM)

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So did my ASQ, but I didn't and they had absolutely no problem leaving paper menus in the hall for me to fill out, and a sweetheart of a nurse called me everyday to ask my temperature and we'd have a little conversation and I made her giggle and she made my stay that much more tolerable.

 

So, I refuse to knuckle under to technology and BS bureaucracy. It distances people from each other, and that is a bad thing.

 

Social distancing is an oxymoron.

 

But if you prefer the apps and phones claiming to be smart, go for it. That's your decision to make and I respect it; I'm not attacking you, just saying we all have a choice.

 

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[Nicholas222]

Some, like myself, are extremely sensitive to wireless technology.    And although some class this medical phenomena as a syndrome, I class it as a disability.    It would not be fair to ignore those of us who find using a smartphone damaging to ones health, and that alternatives are available.  

[houstoniron]

For what it is worth, I entered Thailand form Germany 2 days ago. There are detailed checks on all documents you need to enter Thailand right now. I have never seen so many health professionals in one place. At no time was I asked to show the App that are required.

That said anyone that does not have smart phone even the most basis is going to have problems. It seem to me that LINE is the preferred communication method. In my quarantine hotel, everything is communicated via LINE, meal nurse, special requests.

[david555]

I have nothing against modern technology , as long t is made to be helping us, but not forcing us  , but not that it must replaced  continuous because not compatible anymore in just a 2 year period because Android continuous updates , because also the size of always bigger , i thought the foldable one's would be the solution .... but they only use that option to make screen bigger ..., and most of all the loading from every app with more and more options give hackers and fishing more and more opportunity's to steal , track of all your where a bouts .

 

Can be very handy things but they are overgrowing in any means 

[RJRS1301]

15 hours ago, bkk6060 said:

Maybe they will attach some other tracing/contact device for you to carry.

 

Perhaps ball and chain ?

[Ralf001]

14 hours ago, bbko said:

Are these just hypothetical questions or does anyone here really still have just a basic mobile phone?

My personal phone is a Nokia 2720 flip.

 

My work supplied phone is an Apple Iphone 12 Pro.... it gets turned off at 5pm when I get in my car to drive home and turned back on at 8.00am when work starts.

[RJRS1301]

1 hour ago, Nicholas222 said:

Some, like myself, are extremely sensitive to wireless technology.    And although some class this medical phenomena as a syndrome, I class it as a disability.    It would not be fair to ignore those of us who find using a smartphone damaging to ones health, and that alternatives are available.  

Abacus and smoke signals and semaphore flags?

[Ralf001]

1 hour ago, Nicholas222 said:

Some, like myself, are extremely sensitive to wireless technology.    And although some class this medical phenomena as a syndrome, I class it as a disability.    It would not be fair to ignore those of us who find using a smartphone damaging to ones health, and that alternatives are available.  

So you have no mobile phone at all smart or dumb ?

[Rampant Rabbit]

13 hours ago, gk10012001 said:

Everything I have needed, I say needed, not wanted, can wait and I have been able to do from home on my PC.  

precisely, no way am I  carrying around any device with a stack of  info on it, 1  ill  lose  it , 2  ill forget to charge it3  Ill sit  on it and break it, 4 I dont and wont.

[EVENKEEL]

I also had a Nokia for my international phone, untill 2 yrs ago working in S'pore tried to buy a Sim and none would work. Forced into a smart phone. Still only use phone for mainly talking, google map has proven useful. I only buy internet for 1 day when needed. I submit to the smart phone age but still use a home computer for most things like banking.

 

On my return trip to US soon I'll buy a Mac Daddy phone.  The one feature of the top phones is the camera. Outstanding quality pics. Samsung has a new flip phone 60K tbh.

[Rampant Rabbit]

9 hours ago, Salerno said:

 

It's not just a "UK" thing, it's universal and something everyone that has/will enter Thailand under the current situation has agreed to comply with when applying for a COE:

 

doesnt  specificaly say MOBILE  PHONE in fact thats very vague.

[kwak250]

Gone are the days when you can whip out your Nokia 3310 and impress the bar girls with your ringtones and snake game

 

[Bert got kinky]

2 minutes ago, kwak250 said:

Gone are the days when you can whip out your Nokia 3310 and impress the bar girls with your ringtones and snake game

 

 

Are you suggesting that playing 'snake games' with bar girls is a thing of the past?

 

[cyril sneer]

It's a requirement in the hope that you don't have one so are forced to purchase one at an overflated price at the airport

[ramrod711]

21 minutes ago, Rampant Rabbit said:

precisely, no way am I  carrying around any device with a stack of  info on it, 1  ill  lose  it , 2  ill forget to charge it3  Ill sit  on it and break it, 4 I dont and wont.

I came to Thailand in 2005, I had never owned a cellphone until I bought one here. I bought it in case I got lost, and ended up losing two phones in less than two weeks. 

[tonray]

5 minutes ago, ramrod711 said:

I came to Thailand in 2005, I had never owned a cellphone until I bought one here. I bought it in case I got lost, and ended up losing two phones in less than two weeks. 

I came in 2015 and the first smartphone I ever owned was purchased at MBK. I had  small Nokia flip phones previously just for voice calling and not much else. Now, invaluable tool in my arsenal. Could not live with Google Maps, GRAB app, LINE, restaurant reviews, etc etc

[PingRoundTheWorld]

16 hours ago, TerryS123 said:

They do not check at the airport.  At least they didn't when I arrived. 

They absolutely did check for Mor Chana in Phuket airport. Nobody checked or mentioned Thailand Plus.

As for the requirement to have a smart phone - boring - smart phones are so cheap and readily available these days that it's the least of your worries in the whole COE process. 99.9% of tourists who'd travel these days have one already anyway. I can't really think of anyone I know who doesn't, actually.

[jonclark]

16 hours ago, nrasmussen said:

I find it hard to believe that anyone in this day and age would travel anywhere without a smartphone.

I think this is more about personal choice. Its often easy to forget that up unitl 20 - 25 years ago mobile were a rarity and yet people back in the day managed to survive quite easily. 

 

And to be fair - when i take holidays in Thailand, i leave my smart phone at home simply to get away form the never ending drone of emails / spam / internet and my subconcious habits of continualy fiddling and checking it- It is a holiday after all and a break from the electronic chatter is very benificial to your wellbeing so I can imagine others would also want a break from the smartphone as well. 

 

Smartphones are not a permanat attatchment to your life. 

[LivinLOS]

16 hours ago, Denim said:

Plenty of old people are not tech minded and find no need for one.

And now they are finding they do have a need of one.. 

Yet appear to complaining about it saying they dont need one ? 

[Surasak]

16 hours ago, bbko said:

Are these just hypothetical questions or does anyone here really still have just a basic mobile phone?

A conversation on smart phones came up the other day and a Norwegian guy produced a Nokia 3310. Not quite from the ark, but almost.

[richard_smith237]

12 hours ago, david555 said:

13 hours ago, sezze said:

I do have a smartphone , but i do know 1 person my age who doesn't have 1 and i do know that my parents don't have 1 also and absolutely cannot work with anything remotely more then the numbers on a standard phone ( even reading a received SMS is not possible ) .

But on the point , what do you do with your smartphone without connection ? Meaning , arriving at airport , foreign card in it , costs are very very high ( 100s of baht/MB ) so if you come off the airplane and you startup your phone it checks everything and bang , you are down several 1000s of baht on your foreign phonecard . Not very attractive ... . In the "normal" days , i arrived at airport and at arrival i did buy a high volume Thai phonecard , so i could use ( call/data) without a problem . Does this option still exist , since it is behind immigration , and if i need to go straight away in transfer , i cant reach those shops ?

Expand  

Smart remark ????????.... just landed and no Thai connection settings yet , and just in the arrival zone before immigration ...

Not really - there’s free WiFi at the Airport !!!...

 

You can leave the phone in Plane Mode, WiFi only - I see why some struggle. 

 

As soon as you leave the airport (or even at the Airport) you can buy a local SIM.

 

[Denim]

12 minutes ago, LivinLOS said:

And now they are finding they do have a need of one.. 

Yet appear to complaining about it saying they dont need one ? 

Then you are mistaken.

 

I have no axe to grind against smartphones, merely stating fact.

 

However, I do have an axe to grind against apps that are badly designed , not user friendly , and meltdown when too many people swamp them at the same time. Imagine a crowded immigration hall at swampy with hundreds of tired travelers from all over the world queing up at immigration hoping that they have understood the app correctly. 

 

The US navy coined a term , KISS.

 

Keep it simple. 

 

The KISS principle states that most systems work best if they are kept simple rather than made complicated; therefore, simplicity should be a key goal in design, and unnecessary complexity should be avoided. 

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/KISS_principle

[LivinLOS]

5 minutes ago, Denim said:

I have no axe to grind against smartphones, merely stating fact.

Perhaps you.. But that is the clear general gist of the 'I dont need one why should I...' luddite crowd who populate these kind of threads. 

 

Now they have a clear reason why they do need one.. The inconvenience of not having one is far greater than cost and hassle of learning to use one. 

[richard_smith237]

12 hours ago, HeijoshinCool said:

16 hours ago, richard_smith237 said:

Ultimately it's simple: You need a smart phone which can show a QR code. 

 

If this is too much for you, don’t come - it really doesn’t get any simpler than that. 

Expand  

Yes, we must be just like you or we are bad people....no room for individuality in your world. Maybe we should all wear uniforms, too.

You seem to be struggling and looking to blame ’someone’ on this forum for the requirement to posses a Smart Phone to enter Thailand. 

 

You have a choice...  Don’t try and enter Thailand under the current entry conditions if owning a smart phone is that much of a problem. 

 

 

[HeijoshinCool]

1 minute ago, richard_smith237 said:

You seem to be struggling and looking to blame ’someone’ on this forum for the requirement to posses a Smart Phone to enter Thailand. 

 

You have a choice...  Don’t try and enter Thailand under the current entry conditions if owning a smart phone is that much of a problem. 

 

 

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Zieg heil, mein Führer!

[richard_smith237]

13 minutes ago, Denim said:

Imagine a crowded immigration hall at swampy with hundreds of tired travelers from all over the world queing up at immigration hoping that they have understood the app correctly. 

 

No need to imagine this.... 10’s of thousands have already entered without a problem. 

 

It is only a vocal minority who seem to have issues with the requirement to download Thailand Plus or Mor Chana and they seem to be on this forum looking to find a problem out of a solution.

 

Both Thailand Pls and Mor Chana are incredibly simple to use and work well - have you even tried them ?

 

 

Edited September 8, 2021 by richard_smith237

[actonion]

16 hours ago, bbko said:

Are these just hypothetical questions or does anyone here really still have just a basic mobile phone?

Yes i have a  small basic Nokia mobile phone that works just fine at 12 years old

[toofarnorth]

14 hours ago, david555 said:

True...

But as you see i am not a native English one ....

 

Never learned English in my schooltime ...only the 3 other home country languages

 

I try my best to follow forum rules by trying typing English 

So accept my excuses to the language gestapo ..????

????

 

Yes my bad david555 , see I have only 3 furlung friends up here and one is David so when I see the name David I assume the name belongs to a Brit. or close.

[richard_smith237]

43 minutes ago, jonclark said:

Smartphones are not a permanat attatchment to your life. 

This statement...  Yes, Agreed....   

 

I would also add ... ‘But they add great degree of convenience'