Designing custom passes for Apple Wallet: a beginner’s guide

Published on 21st February 2025

If you’ve been thinking about how to put together an Apple Wallet pass, this is the guide for you. The best place to start is always by asking what you need the pass to actually do. It’s easy to get carried away with features, but you have to remember that a pass often needs to handle more than one task. Apple Wallet passes are a reliable way for businesses to speak to their customers while making daily operations run a bit smoother.

First up: design your mobile pass and how it will function

Wallet passes are digital versions of the cards most of us carry around in our pockets, but they offer quite a bit more utility than a piece of plastic or paper. They are active tools that can update in real-time, send notifications based on time or location, and connect properly with the systems you already use.

A single pass can handle several jobs at once. Picture a membership card that not only gets you into the building but also keeps track of your loyalty points, shows you upcoming events, and sends you personalised messages. This isn't just about convenience for the user, it’s a very effective way to keep your brand right there in your customer's hand.

Whether you’re organising a festival, running a gym, or managing a membership club, you need to think about the fundamental features. You might need to let people into a building, register employees as they clock in to work, collect points in a cafe, or check the ID of event-goers.

If you’re struggling to see how this fits into your business, look at what you use right now and ask how a digital wallet pass could replace it. Do your members carry a plastic card they have to scan? Do they have a paper loyalty card that needs stamping? Do they have to type in a code to get through a door? These are all friction points where a wallet pass provides a much better and more secure replacement.

What else does it need to do?

You should consider whether there’s anything else that would improve the experience for the customer or the employee. Perhaps you want to:

Collect loyalty points
Grant entry to exclusive areas
Display reservation details

Which other systems does it need to connect with?

The real value of wallet passes are shown when they’re properly connected to your existing business infrastructure. Think of your pass as a bridge between your customer's phone and your operations. When you get this right, it creates a flow for users without forcing them to rely on emails or sign in to slow apps.

Do you have a CRM you want to control access from?
Maybe the ticketing and payment programme needs to be tied in?
Or how about the sports session booking system?

What’s it going to look like?

When it comes to design, Apple has strict guidelines which might seem restrictive at first, but they are actually very helpful. These boundaries ensure your pass looks professional and works properly within the Apple ecosystem. You can think of it as having a design consultant guiding your choices.

You will need to decide on:

Pass identifier logo: This sits in the top left corner to identify the pass in the Apple Wallet stack.
Pass background: An image or solid colour that appears on the front of the pass, such as an photo of the hotel or the logo of the festival.
Icon: A smaller version of the logo for push notifications.

Going a step further

Once you have the basics working well, you can look at other features to add to the capability of your passes. Location-based notifications, for instance, can remind customers about their points when they’re near your shop or cafe. You can also use updates to adjust a membership status instantly based on what the customer does.

How to get started

If you would like to issue wallet passes in your office, hotel, venue, or university, we would love to discuss your project.

Book a Demo Today