Technologies
How to put your COVID-19 vaccine card on your smartphone
Your COVID-19 vaccination card is now required for many businesses and events. Learn how to put it on your phone so that it’s always available.

As the highly contagious omicron variant of the coronavirus surges through the US, many states are requiring proof of vaccination for adults and kids as young as 5 to enter restaurants, gyms, movie theaters and just about any other public venue.
And if you’re traveling for the holidays, having your vaccine record close at hand is more important than ever. But you don’t have to keep the printed version in your wallet or purse: To prevent damage or loss, we recommend storing it in your phone instead.
Not sure how? We’ll show you ways you can store your vaccine card digitally — including the methods to use if you have an Android or iPhone — and help you find out whether or not your state has a specific app.
Which states are using vaccination record apps?
While some governors have signed orders banning so-called vaccine passports, many states have apps that allow residents to keep a digital version of their vaccine cards on their smartphones. Eleven — including California, Colorado, Hawaii, New York and Louisiana — offer SMART Health Cards that store vaccination records and COVID-19 test results.
Colorado residents, for example, can download the myColorado app: After you create an account, verify your identity and add a digital version of your driver’s license to your phone, you can then add your myVaccine record to the app. Louisiana’s LA Wallet app takes a similar approach, allowing you to add your driver’s license and proof of vaccination to your phone.
California requires residents to fill out a form to verify their identity, after which they’ll receive a text or email with a link to a QR code that can be saved to their phone. When scanned, the code will offer proof of vaccination. The link will also include a digital copy of your vaccination record.
Illinois residents can use VaxVerify, which uses Experian for identity verification.
MyIR Mobile is used by several health departments, including Arizona, Louisiana, Maryland, Mississippi, North Dakota, Washington state, West Virginia and Washington, DC.
Delaware, New Mexico and Michigan are also using web portals to let residents access their vaccination status online.
New Yorkers have two app options: The Excelsior Pass app and NYC Covid Safe.
We’ll continue to update this feature as more states offer apps and features to store your COVID-19 vaccine card online. And keep in mind if you get a booster dose, you’ll need to re-upload your vaccine card.
What if my state doesn’t have an app that lets me store my card?
If your state doesn’t have an iPhone or Android app that lets you store a copy of your vaccination record, there are other ways to keep it on your phone. What qualifies as valid proof, however, can vary by state, city, county or even business.
Some places may accept a photo of your physical vaccination card: For example, concert producer AEG Presents accepts a «physical copy of a COVID-19 Vaccination Record Card, a digital copy of such card or such other proof as is permitted locally.» But you definitely want to research first if your city, county or state does the same.
Along with public school mandates, hundreds of private colleges are also requiring students and employees to be vaccinated: Seattle University, which requires students to be vaccinated to attend in-person classes, offers an online form to upload photos of the front and back of your vaccination card.
When in doubt, look for information on the business’s website or call the local health department and ask for clarification. This is bound to save you time and the risk of being turned away at the door.
Can I store my car with Google Pay or Apple Wallet?
If you have an iPhone ($350 at Amazon), you can store your COVID-19 vaccination card on your Apple Wallet to present whenever you need to show you’re fully vaccinated. (You can keep a copy in the Health app, too.) The WatchOS 8.1 update allows you to keep your card handy on your Apple Watch.
If you have an Android, you can add your vaccine card to the Google Pay app and even add a shortcut icon to your home screen to find it quickly.
Samsung Pay can also store your vaccine record
Samsung now gives Galaxy phone owners the option to add proof of vaccination to Samsung Pay. You’ll need to download the CommonHealth app (Samsung’s partner) from the Google Play Store and follow the prompts in the app to verify your vaccination status.
Once the app confirms you’veindeed gotten the jabs, you’ll be prompted to download a Smart HealthCard to Samsung Pay which you can show to anyone requesting you show proof of vaccination. It beats having to fiddle around with photo albums and tapping through multiple screens before you’re able to show it to a bouncer or maître d’.
Will a picture of my vaccine card work?
The simplest way to have a digital record of your vaccine status is to snap a photograph of your vaccination card and keep it on your phone. Even the CDC recommends keeping a picture of your card as a backup copy.
You can make the photo a favorite to quickly locate it or store it in a notes app, a folder or somewhere easy to remember. Make sure you’re in a well-lit area and get close enough to the card that the dates and other details are legible. Put the card on a dark surface and try to eliminate shadows from your arms or the phone itself.
Here’s one way iPhone users can save their vaccination card as a new photo album: Open the Photos app, select the Albums tab and then tap the plus (+) sign in the top-left corner followed by New Album. Give the album a name and then tap Save. Next, select the photos of your card to add them to the album.
On an Android, it depends on which app you’re using, but the process should generally be the same. If you’re using the Google Photos app, open the app and then select the picture of your vaccination card. Tap the three-dot menu button in the top-right corner, followed by the Add to Album button. Select +New album and give it a name such as «Vaccination Card» and tap the checkmark button when you’re done.
What else can I use?
I’ve had a large number of readers reach out to me about this article, each one offering advice and guidance about storing a proof of vaccination card.
Some suggestions include well-known airport security service Clear. In fact, some concert and exhibition halls require that attendees use Clear to verify their vaccination status to attend a show. You can go to clearme.com/healthpass to download the app and get your card added.
VaxYes is another service that verifies your vaccination status and then adds your vaccination card to your Apple Wallet. I’ve read that you can add your card to the Google Pay app, but after signing up and going through the process myself, I don’t see the option on a Pixel 5 running Android 12.
If your local municipality or employer used the CDC’s Vaccine Administration Management System, then you can use the VAMS website to access your vaccination records. I had more than one reader reach out to me about using this system to show proof of vaccination, but without an account myself, I’m unable to go through the process of accessing a vaccination record.
Another suggestion I received from multiple readers is to use a scanner app on your phone and store a scanned copy of your vaccination card in something like your OneDrive personal vault or a password manager (almost all of them offer some sort of secure file storage) instead of storing the photo in Google Photos or Apple’s iCloud photos. On an iPhone, you can use the scanner that’s built into the Notes app. On Android, Google’s Stack PDF scanner will be enough to get the job done.
This story will be updated as the national vaccine conversation continues. For more information about the booster shots from Pfizer, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson, make sure to read this primer.
The information contained in this article is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as health or medical advice. Always consult a physician or other qualified health provider regarding any questions you may have about a medical condition or health objectives.
Technologies
Signal Will Black Out Windows Recall Screenshots to Preserve Privacy
It’s a whole different kind of dark mode for the paparazzi-like AI feature in Windows 11.

The privacy-minded Signal messaging service is putting a blindfold on the prying eyes of the newly returned Windows Recall, Microsoft’s AI-powered feature that will take a screenshot of whatever you’re doing on your computer every few seconds to give your PC the «photographic memory» you never asked for.
In a blog post Wednesday, Signal announced a new «screen security» feature for its Windows 11 app so that said screenshots will appear as a black screen when it tries to snap what you’re doing, much like what happens if you try to take a screenshot of DRM content from Netflix and the like.
Last year, Microsoft pulled Recall from new Copilot Plus PCs in response to backlash over security and privacy concerns, which continued to plague it in the ensuing months as Microsoft worked through revisions.
Neither Signal nor Microsoft immediately responded to a request for comment.
Technologies
I’ve Been Tracking Tariff Price Impacts Every Day: Some Are Steady, But Don’t Get Comfy
CNET is keeping track of prices for several key products as prospects for the months ahead remain uncertain.

Amazon this week claimed that is prices were remaining steady, but the news about President Donald Trump’s tariffs and the economic fallout isn’t getting any rosier: Just this week, Subaru announced that prices on certain models were getting hiked soon. While the Japanese firm didn’t explicitly call out tariffs as the reason, the fact that the increases were only coming for the US market was telling.
This followed on the heels of perhaps the largest retailer to issue a price increase warning: Walmart. During a May 15 earnings call, the country’s largest grocery chain said that prices for things like toys, tech and food would be going up by the summer. This prompted a response from Trump, who demanded that Walmart not increase prices and eat the costs themselves. This wouldn’t be the first time that the president has lashed out against a company for potentially telling the truth about his tariff’s inflating prices — which, as I’ve written about extensively here on CNET, is absolutely the case.
In this article, I’ve been tracking just that: the daily effect of Trump’s tariffs on the prices of 11 popular products you might want or need to buy, whether it be a new phone, laptop or your daily coffee. So far, we’ve seen notable price hikes for the flagship Xbox game console, while everything else has, as Amazon claimed, remained steady aside from occasional fluctuations that might not be tariff-related. That sort of consistency is far from certain, however, especially with new reports emerging that Apple might be looking to make iPhones more expensive this year.
CNET Tariff Tracker Index
Above, you can check out a chart with the average price of the 11 included items over the course of 2025. This will help give you a sense of the overall price changes and fluctuations going on. Further down, you’ll be able to check out charts for each individual product being tracked.
A recent tariff agreement with China, much-hyped by the White House, did significantly cut tariff rates against the US’s biggest trading partner. The new 30% rate is only temporary, however, and still historically high. It just looks more reasonable next to the ludicrous 145% rate that was previously in place. As those negotiations move along, companies continue to warn of impending price hikes in order to deal with the new tariffs, including Sony, which could potentially mean a price hike for its ever-popular PlayStation 5 consoles.
We’ll be updating this article regularly as prices change. It’s all in the name of helping you make sense of things, so be sure to check back every so often. For more, check out CNET’s guide to whether you should wait to make big purchases or buy them now and get expert tips about how to prepare for a recession.
Methodology
We’re checking prices daily and will update the article and the relevant charts right away to reflect any changes. The following charts show a single bullet point for each month, with the most recent one labeled «Now» and showing the current price. For the past months, we’ve gone with what was the most common price for each item in the given month.
In most cases, the price stats used in these graphs were pulled from Amazon using the historical price tracker tool Keepa. For the iPhones, the prices come from Apple’s official materials and are based on the 128-gigabyte base model of the latest offering for each year: the iPhone 14, iPhone 15 and iPhone 16. For the Xbox Series X, the prices were sourced from Best Buy using the tool PriceTracker. If any of these products happen to be on sale at a given time, we’ll be sure to let you know and explain how those price drops differ from longer-term pricing trends that tariffs can cause.
The 11 products we’re tracking
Mostly what we’re tracking in this article are electronic devices and digital items that CNET covers in depth, like iPhones and affordable 4K TVs — along with a typical bag of coffee, a more humble product that isn’t produced in the US to any significant degree.
The products featured were chosen for a few reasons: Some of them are popular and/or affordable representatives for major consumer tech categories, like smartphones, TVs and game consoles. Others are meant to represent things that consumers might buy more frequently, like printer ink or coffee beans. Some products were chosen over others because they are likely more susceptible to tariffs. Some of these products have been reviewed by CNET or have been featured in some of our best lists.
- iPhone 16, 128GB
- Duracell AA batteries, 24-pack
- Samsung DU7200 65-inch TV
- Xbox Series X
- Apple AirPods Pro 2 with USB-C case
- HP 962 CMY Printer Ink
- Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
- Bose TV speaker
- Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
- Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook, 256GB
- Starbucks 28-ounce ground dark roast coffee
Below, we’ll get into more about each individual product.
iPhone 16
The iPhone is the most popular smartphone brand in the US, so this was a clear priority for price tracking. The iPhone has also emerged as a major focal point for conversations about tariffs, given its popularity and its susceptibility to import taxes because of its overseas production, largely in China. Trump has reportedly been fixated on the idea that the iPhone can and should be manufactured in the US, an idea that experts have dismissed as a fantasy. Estimates have also suggested that a US-made iPhone would cost as much as $3,500.
Apple has made several moves this year to protect its prices in the US as much as possible, like flying in bulk shipments of product ahead of the tariffs taking effect and working to move production for the American market from China to India, where tariff rates are less severe. This latter move provoked a response from Trump, given his noted fixation on the iPhone, saying on Thursday that he «had a little problem» with Tim Cook over the move, claiming without evidence that the Apple CEO pledged to bring more manufacturing to the US. Cook and others close to the company for years say that the supply chains for its products are too complex to move manufacturing entirely to the US.
Duracell AA batteries
A lot of the tech products in your home might boast a rechargeable energy source but individual batteries are still an everyday essential and I can tell you from experience that as soon as you forget about them, you’ll be needing to restock. The Duracell AAs we’re tracking are some of the bestselling batteries on Amazon.
Samsung DU7200 TV
Alongside smartphones, televisions are some of the most popular tech products out there, even if they’re an infrequent purchase. This particular product is a popular entry-level 4K TV and was CNET’s pick for best overall budget TV for 2025. Unlike a lot of tech products that have key supply lines in China, Samsung is a South Korean company, so it might have some measure of tariff resistance.
Xbox Series X
Video game software and hardware are a market segment expected to be hit hard by the Trump tariffs. Microsoft’s Xbox is the first console brand to see price hikes — the company cited «market conditions» along with the rising cost of development. Most notably, this included an increase in the price of the flagship Xbox Series X, up from $500 to $600. Numerous Xbox accessories were also affected, and the company also said that «certain» games will eventually see a price hike from $70 to $80.
Initially, we were tracking the price of the much more popular Nintendo Switch as a representative of the gaming market. Nintendo has not yet hiked the price of its handheld-console hybrid and stressed that the $450 price tag of the upcoming Switch 2 has not yet been inflated because of tariffs. Sony, meanwhile, has so far only increased prices on its PlayStation hardware in markets outside the US.
AirPods Pro 2
The latest iteration of Apple’s wildly popular true-wireless earbuds are here to represent the headphone market. Much to the chagrin of the audiophiles out there, a quick look at sales charts on Amazon shows you just how much the brand dominates all headphone sales.
HP 962 CMY printer ink
This HP printer ink includes cyan, magenta and yellow all in one product and recently saw its price jump from around $72 — where it stayed for most of 2025 — to $80, which is around its highest price over the last five years. We will be keeping tabs to see if this is a long-term change or a brief uptick.
This product replaced Overture PLA Filament for 3D printers in this piece, but we’re still tracking that item.
Anker 10,000-mAh, 30-watt power bank
Anker’s accessories are perennially popular in the tech space and the company has already announced that some of its products will get more expensive as a direct result of tariffs. This specific product has also been featured in some of CNET’s lists of the best portable chargers. While the price has remained steady throughout the year, it is currently on sale for $16 on Amazon, but only for Prime members.
Bose TV speaker
Soundbars have become important purchases, given the often iffy quality of the speakers built into TVs. While not the biggest or the best offering in the space, the Bose TV Speaker is one of the more affordable soundbar options out there, especially hailing from a brand as popular as Bose.
Oral-B Pro 1000 electric toothbrush
They might be a lot more expensive than their traditional counterparts, but electric toothbrushes remain a popular choice for consumers because of how well they get the job done. I know my dentist won’t let up on how much I need one. This particular Oral-B offering was CNET’s overall choice for the best electric toothbrush for 2025.
Lenovo IdeaPad Flex 5i Chromebook
Lenovo is notable among the big laptop manufacturers for being a Chinese company making its products especially susceptible to Trump’s tariffs.
Starbucks Ground Coffee (28-ounce bag)
Coffee is included in this tracker because of its ubiquity —I’m certainly drinking too much of it these days —and because it’s uniquely susceptible to Trump’s tariff agenda. Famously, coffee beans can only be grown within a certain distance from Earth’s equator, a tropical span largely outside the US and known as the «Coffee Belt.»
Hawaii is the only part of the US that can produce coffee beans, with data from USAFacts showing that 11.5 million pounds were harvested there in the 2022-23 season — little more than a drop in the mug, as the US consumed 282 times that amount of coffee during that period. Making matters worse, Hawaiian coffee production has declined in the past few years.
All that to say: Americans get almost all of their coffee from overseas, making it one of the most likely products to see price hikes from tariffs.
Technologies
I Tested the Honor 400 Pro Phone and This Feature Blew My Mind
Review: The phone is packed with great tech but it’s the AI skills that really surprised me

The Honor 400 Pro phone stood out to me for one big reason during my testing time. It has an AI-powered tool that turns still images into moving video clips. The AI created videos felt at times like magic and took me on an emotional journey that I didn’t expect. But this phone has plenty going for it beyond its AI skills.
Its screen is bright and vibrant, it’s packed with power and at £700 in the UK, it’s relatively affordable and offers some serious competition to both Samsung’s $650 Galaxy S24 FE and arguably even Google’s $1,000 Pixel 9 Pro. The downside for many of you is that the Honor 400 Pro won’t be officially on sale in the US. And that’s a pity because at a time when nearly every phone release comes with AI features (most of which feel like gimmicks), Honor proves that it’s possible for phone AI to really capture your attention. The 400 Pro’s £700 price converts to $938.
There’s also the base Honor 400, which uses a lower-end processor, has a smaller display but still packs the same AI skills. It’ll cost only £400 in the UK, or $537, converted.
I’ve been testing the phone for the past week so here’s what’s good — and not so good — about the Honor 400 Pro.
A vibrant screen, plenty of power
The 400 Pro has a 6.7-inch screen that offers tons of room to do your favorite mobile games or YouTube videos justice. It’s bright enough to counter midday sun and its colors are vibrant. It’s got a maximum 120Hz refresh rate, which makes scrolling around look nice and smooth.
The phone runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 processor that was a mainstay on most 2024 flagship Android phones and which put in some decent scores on our benchmark tests, considering the price. Its scores are in line with last year’s Galaxy S24 and Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which is no surprise as all three phones use the same chip. It’s got more than enough power to handle all of your everyday needs while tackling demanding games like Genshin Impact and PUBG at max settings without breaking a sweat.
Navigating around the Android 15 interface is a breeze. Honor’s skin of the UI is pretty standard, though I’m irked by the number of preinstalled apps the phone comes with. Temu, TikTok, LinkedIn, Booking.com, Amazon and something called ReelShort are all on the phone — along with various others — as soon as you turn it on making it feel quite cluttered from the off. I get that Honor probably makes a healthy bit of cash from these companies by forcing their apps on customers by default, but I’d like to see the phone be even cheaper given that it’s essentially ad-supported. You can uninstall these apps and I advise you to have an immediate clear-out once you get it out of the box.
Honor says the phone will receive six years of software and security support, which is quite good, though it’s a year behind the seven years of security support offered by both Samsung and Google. I’d like to see Honor (and other mobile companies) continue to battle to see who can support their phones for longer — it’s better for your wallet and it’s better for the planet.
AI. Lots of AI
No phone worth its salt in 2025 would launch without some form of AI, and the Honor 400 Pro is no exception. You’ll find a variety of the usual AI tools that range from a speech-to-text tool that transcribes dialogue in real time and a real-time language translation tool to a function that can rephrase, expand or summarise blocks of text.
Most of these are things you’ll find on most AI-enabled phones these days. They work about as well as the ones I’ve tried elsewhere. Google’s Gemini Advanced is also built in, another standard part of the Android experience.
The one feature that took me by surprise though was the image to video tool which creates a 5-second video out of a photo you provide. It’s simple: Open the Image to Video tool in the gallery, choose your source image from your camera roll and hit go. It takes around a minute but then you’ll be presented with an animated version of your still photo.
It uses Google’s VEO-2 AI model, and it seems essentially random in how it decides to bring your image to life as there are no options to provide prompts in what you want to see. Some results are quite bland while others have a lot more going on. The results can be hit and miss in their quality but it’s fun to play around with, though it’s arguably pointless beyond the sheer novelty of it. That said, I was conflicted when I fed it an image of my dad who died when I was a young child.
Right now the tool is available as part of a «free trial» although Honor has yet to confirm how long this trial lasts or how much it will eventually cost. AI is clearly a big part of the phone and while you can use it without using any of the AI tools, it feels like you’d be missing out on a big part of the equation if you chose to.
Hit and miss cameras, middling battery
On the back is a triple camera setup consisting of a 200-megapixel main camera (yes, I did mean to put two zeroes there), a 50-megapixel telephoto camera and a 12-megapixel ultrawide camera. Shots from all three cameras can look solid, with decent overall exposure (if sometimes a little on the bright side for my taste) and plenty of detail. I say «can» as while I have taken plenty of good images with the phone, I’ve also taken various ones that have disappointed me.
The 6x telephoto camera seems to struggle with exposure at times, with blown-out highlights visible in multiple test images I took. It doesn’t happen all the time though and there have been various occasions in my testing when its results look great. I can best describe it as «hit and miss.»
The cameras certainly aren’t the best around — you’ll need to splash more cash for the S25 Ultra or the iPhone 16 Pro if you want that — but they’re good enough for those of you looking for quick snaps on your travels to share with family and friends over WhatsApp or Instagram.
Inside the phone is a 5,300-mAh battery which should see you through most of a day of mixed use. It didn’t do great on our demanding battery drain test, but I’ve certainly seen worse. It does support 100W wired charging though so getting the juice back in is a speedy business.
Honor 400 Pro: Is it worth buying?
The phone’s vibrant display, powerful processor and solid camera setup make it a decent overall option if you’re looking for a phone that’s more affordable than today’s flagships. The AI skills are the cherry on the top, especially the image to video tool which I found genuinely fascinating to use. Will the novelty wear off? Yes, absolutely, but it’s certainly fun to play with for a while.
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