Getting started with Apple Wallet passes

Apple Wallet passes are digital cards, such as loyalty cards, coupons, event tickets, boarding passes, and store cards, that your users keep in the Wallet app on iPhone and Apple Watch. With Pushwoosh, you can design a pass visually in the Control Panel, share it, and then push updates at any time without asking users to reinstall anything.

When you change a pass, Pushwoosh notifies every device that added it, and iOS quietly fetches the new version. The barcode, balance, gate number, or expiry date on the user’s phone updates on its own.

What you can do with Apple Wallet passes

With Apple Wallet passes in Pushwoosh, you can:

• Design passes visually with colors, fields, logo, strip image, and barcode, without writing pass.json by hand.
• Create loyalty cards, coupons, event tickets, boarding passes, and generic store cards.
• Distribute passes to users as a .pkpass file, install link, or QR code.
• Update pass content and deliver changes to devices that added the pass.

Prerequisites

Developer assistance needed

Issuing Apple Wallet passes requires an Apple Developer account and signing certificates. Share this section with your developer team to complete the one-time setup.

Before you design your first pass, confirm the following:

• Apple Developer Program: You need an active membership to register Pass Type IDs and create signing certificates. Enroll or manage your account
• iOS platform: Your application must have iOS connected in Pushwoosh before you can add a pass signing certificate. Set up iOS

Start working with Apple Wallet passes

After the prerequisites are in place, work through this flow:

1. Configure Wallet passes in Pushwoosh

   Before you can design passes, Pushwoosh must have your Apple signing certificate for the application. Your developer team creates it in Apple Developer and uploads it to Pushwoosh. This is a one-time setup per application.

   How to set up the signing certificate

2. Design the pass

   In the pass builder, choose a pass style, set fields and branding, and check the live preview.

3. Generate a signed .pkpass

   Once you create and validate the pass, in the pass builder, select Generate. Pushwoosh prepares images at the required resolutions and signs the file with your certificate.

4. Distribute the pass

   Send users the .pkpass file, install link, or QR code. See Share the pass with users via Pushwoosh channels. When users add the pass to Wallet, their device registers for future updates.

5. Update pass content

   Edit the pass in the pass builder or through the API and save. Pushwoosh notifies registered devices, and iOS downloads the new version in the background. Users do not need to reinstall the pass.

View and manage existing passes

In the Control Panel, go to Campaigns → Apple Wallet to open the passes list. The page lists every pass for the application, including its name, style, the User ID it is associated with, and the date and time it was last updated.

On the passes list, open the actions menu (⋮) to:

• Edit: change pass name and description, field values and labels, change messages, colors, barcode message, expiration and status, and locations. Pass style and images stay locked after creation. When you save, every device that added the pass receives the update.

Updates are delivered as silent pushes

When you save a change, Pushwoosh re-signs the pass and notifies every registered device with a content-free push. iOS fetches the new version on its own—no reinstall required.

• Download: download the signed .pkpass file.
• QR code: show an install QR code users can scan to add the pass to Wallet and register their device for updates. In this window, you can also use Copy install link below the QR.
• Copy install link: copy the install URL to share the pass in your messaging channels. Learn more.
• Delete: remove the pass. Copies already installed on devices stop receiving updates and become invalid on their next refresh.

Share the pass with users via Pushwoosh channels

The install link you copy in the builder (Copy install link) is a regular URL. Opening it on an iPhone adds the pass to Apple Wallet. You can use this link in the same Pushwoosh channels you already use to reach your audience:

• Email: add the link to a button or text link in the email editor, for example, an “Add to Apple Wallet” call to action.
• Push notifications: set the link as the notification’s open action so a tap opens the pass.
• SMS: include the link in SMS content.

One link per pass

Each install link is tied to a single pass (it carries that pass’s serial number and token), so one link works for one shared pass, which is handy for a common coupon or event ticket. To give every recipient their own pass, generate a pass per user with the PassKit API and send each user their own link. Wallet passes install on Apple devices only—iPhone and Apple Watch.

Manage passes via API

Everything the pass builder does is also available programmatically through the PassKit Designer API: create, update, list, download, and delete passes.

Apple Wallet PassKit API