Digital Signature: How are documents signed with a smartphone?
Created: 07/11/2022 15:21
Signing documents digitally is faster than organizing your documents on paper.
But does a digital signature always have the same validity?
What users need to know.
More and more people are working directly from their
smartphone
because modern technology is becoming more and more powerful.
For some, this includes
signing documents as
a matter of course .
This does not always work in the same user-friendly way: Apple devices can do it ex works, on Android smartphones users have to make do with apps.
This is how the
digital signature
finds its way under
contracts and applications
.
Woman signs digitally on smartphone © AntonioGuillem/Imago
Digital signature: there are legal differences
Not all documents are equally valid with a digital signature before the law.
If it is about a letter of termination for
tenancy and employment relationships
or a
guarantee
, only the
so-called "qualified digital signature" (QES)
replaces the "signature in written form".
Within the European Union, QES-signed documents have been legally binding since 2016, when the European eIDAS regulation came into force.
In order to create a QES, users must reveal their identity.
There are online procedures and physical options for this, for example presenting your ID at Deutsche Post.
In order to protect the
signature
from subsequent changes, it is
stored
on a smart card or a server .
The EU offers an overview of trustworthy
certified companies
- these are the only ones people should turn to to register a QES signature.
Digitally sign documents: Signature function only standard on Apple devices
In order to sign an application or the purchase contract for a mobile phone, however, a freehand signature
swung directly onto the smartphone display is sufficient
.
To do this, the
document must be saved as a PDF
on the mobile phone, for example by downloading an e-mail attachment.
Termination of the employment contract: the most important facts that everyone should know
View photo gallery
Owners of
Apple devices
have it easy, because iOS devices have a signature function ex works.
To use it, iOS users click on the pen symbol in the top right corner of a PDF and select an already stored signature or create a new one.
The Apple solution is
extremely easy to
use and can be shared and managed across all iOS devices thanks to cloud sharing.
Special case Android: Several options on common digital signature platforms
Owners of Android phones, on the other hand, have to choose
one or more apps
.
The majority of users fall back on
Adobe's Acrobat Reader
; a signature function is integrated into the popular PDF viewer.
It's also simple: Open the document to be signed and tap the pen icon in the lower right corner, the
fountain pen icon
takes the app to the signature options.
Photographing his signature
is just as possible as importing it as a file into Acrobat Reader.
Would you like more tips on the subject of jobs and careers?
Then follow our news pages on the Xing and LinkedIn career portals.
The Adobe offering is also available for iOS devices, as well as numerous other solutions for both operating systems.
"PDF Extra - Scan, Edit & Sign" (Android/iOS), "Adobe Fill & Sign" (Android/iOS), "DocuSign" (Android/iOS) and "Signeasy" (Android/iOS) are downloaded particularly frequently. .
The
apps are
very similar to each other and serve their purpose.
On top of that, they are all free of
charge
, which is why it is definitely worth taking a closer look for users.
(elm/spot)