iOS 15 Wallet Guide: Everything You Need to Know

[TVreporter]

I could never leave all those items home. Imagine at the border or airport and you get ready to flash your ID and the phone freezes or battery dies.

Then what happens?

Sure a run to the local store is fine for pay but I want my personal ID on me.

 

[diego.caraballo]

This is new to iOS 15? A time ago you were able to add an iTunes Pass to the wallet that displayed a QR for quick recharges in a physical Apple Store. This option has been unavailable for a time.

 

[lovehateapple]

I'm looking forward to trying some of this stuff out. I imagine I will still carry my physical wallet with me most of the time, but it will be nice in certain situations to not have to.

 

[meady100]

Apple in iOS 15 is taking another step toward replacing the traditional wallet, adding several new features to its digital Wallet app that will allow people to leave their physical cards and keys behind.

This guide highlights all of the new features that are coming to the Wallet app in iOS 15, but it's worth noting that many of them rely on third-party companies and services adopting Wallet support.

Digital IDs

In the United States, Apple is working with state authorities to allow iPhone users to add their driver's license or state ID card to the Wallet app, which would allow digital IDs to be used in lieu of a physical ID card.

Apple is also working with the TSA to allow digital ID cards to be used at TSA checkpoints, with the digital ID able to be shown to a TSA agent prior to boarding a plane.

ID cards stored on the iPhone are also able to be brought up on an Apple Watch.

Apple says that digital ID cards will roll out to select states first, but we don't yet know which states. Apple has to secure agreements with each individual state to allow the Wallet to be used to store an ID card or driver's license, and it will take some time for states to agree to the feature.

Key Storage

With iOS 15, Apple is hoping to replace standard physical keys with digital versions that can be used right from the Wallet app.

All of these key features require partner companies to implement support, and these are not features that will be immediately available when iOS 15 launches.

Homes

Companies that make HomeKit-compatible locks can add support for a Wallet-based house key that can be used to tap to unlock HomeKit door locks.

Home keys will be available in the Wallet app and can be accessed on iPhone and Apple Watch.

Offices

Corporate offices can also implement digital keys for the Wallet app, allowing employees to unlock doors with a tap of an iPhone or an Apple Watch instead of requiring a corporate badge for location access.

Hotels

Participating hotels that use digital keys can allow customers to add those keys to the Wallet app after making a reservation, allowing them to bypass the lobby.

The digital hotel key stored in the Wallet app can be used to unlock a hotel room. After checkout, the hotel room key is automatically archived.

Cars

Apple already introduced a Car Keys feature that lets you unlock your car with a key stored in the Wallet app, but in iOS 15, Apple is implementing Ultra Wideband support for precise spatial awareness.

Improved spatial awareness prevents an iPhone from being locked in a car or a car from starting when the iPhone isn't inside.

iOS 15 also adds support for locking or unlocking the car, honking the horn, preheating the car, or opening the trunk with control options that are located in the Wallet app when you're nearby your vehicle.

BMW is the only car manufacturer that has implemented Car Keys support at the current time, and this feature needs to be adopted by car manufacturers to work.

Archived Passes

Expired boarding passes and event tickets are automatically removed from the Wallet app and housed in an "Expired" section so you no longer need to manually take them out or deal with the clutter of old passes.

"Hide Expired Passes" is an option in the Wallet & Apple Pay section of the Settings app that is toggled on by default, but can also be turned off if you want to keep your passes.

Multiple-Pass Downloads

Safari lets you download multiple passes to the Wallet app in one go, so if you buy movie or zoo tickets for the whole family, you can download them to Wallet all at once rather than having to do so one pass at a time.

Feedback

Have questions about the new Wallet app features in iOS 15, know of a feature we left out, or want to offer feedback on this guide? Send us an email here.

Article Link: What's New With the iOS 15 Wallet App: ID Support, Home Keys, Car Keys, Archived Passes and More

Count me out. I’m sure they’ll soon be happy to pass your ids across to the relevant authorities for any suspected infractions.

 

[Robert.Walter]

Based upon the reliability of Apple pay I can't see leaving any of these "replaced" items behind. Pay works much of the time but then it doesn't at a certain register at a certain store. Go on a trip and count on my phone having all the doc - oops I dropped my phone and now I don't have any those docs. I know I could lose my wallet and have similar issues but I just don't think we are there yet.

What you talking about Willis?

Get a watch. Then you have redundancy. And with it running thru iCloud you have a backup. Oh, anybody can crack your walket or car keys without a fingerprint or face scan.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I'M HERE FOR IT! I find myself using Apple Pay more than inserting my debit card nowadays!

Besides license, I don’t carry any wallet cards since 2015. Haven’t had problems once. Well, my phone ran out of juice once but then my Watch stepped up and performed!

 

[Robert.Walter]

I like these additions to Wallet. The less I have to carry when leaving home the better.

The problem is that it will take a while for everything to be adopted everywhere. There are still plenty of places that don’t take ApplePay, I can only imagine how slow states will be to roll out digital IDs, and for CarKey to take off there really needs to be an after market solution people can install on existing cars.

If OEM’s are smart they will offer a factory service part retrofit solution.

There’s money in that for them, and if they are really smart they won’t hoard it trying to entice customers to trade up.

 

[LeadingHeat]

I would like to see this with Homekit/Matter. So, for example, I could scan my watch and have the coffee maker set it to my preference, and when someone else scans it brews to their preference. (Heck, this could even be used to make it easier to make coffee at someone else's home.) Or let me have music profiles that adjust volume and equalizer settings.

Put that suggestion on Apple.com/feedback! That’s a great idea!

 

[magicvash]

I for one am looking forward to digital IDs, but don’t realistically see the wallet going away anytime soon. There are tons of retails stores and restaurants that still don’t support NFC payments (I’m looking at you Kroger, Home Depot, Lowes, Walmart) and I can’t see anyone using digital ID for age verification at bars anytime soon without a VERY large infrastructure adjustment that no one can afford to spend money on right now.

Locks - I have an august lock that works well for me and Auto Unlocks when I arrive at home.

Car - Tesla hasn’t needed physical keys. Having BMW adopt is nice, but we need more car manufacturers to support it, and *actually* support it for starting the car and driving.

Hotels - this is huge, between wallet & watch not needing those stupid keycards would be great. Hilton’s setup works ok but you need to wait for the app to load, and it doesn’t support the watch (or at least i can’t get it to work on my watch)

Work/Office - seems like many offices are windows/office 365 based and not sure if this would require a macOS or iOS support team. Don’t see large companies/institutions/Universities/etc.. making a wholesale change to upgrade all their locks to support this.

Love that they’re introducing it, but still a long way to go before your phone & watch can be all you take with you

 

[centauratlas]

How about the ability for Wallet to know which cards offer the best perks at particular stores? E.g. automatically use the Red Card at Target, Bank Of America Premium rewards (2.62%) at the right spot, Discover with their 5% bonus wherever that is, Apple Card at Apple etc.

So it picks what is best at that time.

 

[4jasontv]

I have zero affiliation with this company, but this is what I plan on installing. I imagine they will be quick to support Apple's Key system. Looks just like an ordinary deadbolt. I don't like 'smart' looking devices either. I just want my ordinary things but happen to have useful smart features built in that I can trust to work.

I'm really hoping for a PoE Homekit camera, right now the closest thing I can find is using Homebridge on a Raspberry Pi and Ubiquiti cameras. PoE switches are so cheap I feel the market is there for it. I don't want half a dozen cameras sending data over WiFi constantly.

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I saw the Bolt on Amazon, and I liked it but I think my issue if I recall, was that it didn't support the watch if you didn't have your phone. I have a lot of trails near me and it would be cool to be able to just take my watch.

But, I like the idea of the touch because then I can give the cards to guests so they can go for hikes on their own.

HMMMMM.

 

[CouldBeWorse]

It seems like adding a copy of Covid vaccination cards is an obvious and very timely miss here, especially since those cards (at least here in MA) are just too big to conveniently carry in a regular wallet. Why they didn't design them to be the same size as a credit card completely puzzles me.

I get the privacy concerns, but I think they're largely overblown in regards to this feature as all the companies pretty much already know where we're going and what we're buying at this point.

I use Apple Pay on my Apple Watch as often as I can because the convenience is really nice. Some of the Speedway gas stations have started accepting Apple Pay recently, so using it at gas stations is starting to become a reality.

This varies state by state. Here in New York, you can add your Excelsior Pass to Apple Wallet.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I like these additions to Wallet. The less I have to carry when leaving home the better.

The problem is that it will take a while for everything to be adopted everywhere. There are still plenty of places that don’t take ApplePay, I can only imagine how slow states will be to roll out digital IDs, and for CarKey to take off there really needs to be an after market solution people can install on existing cars.

I think it will be many years before all this comes to fruition. Too early to get excited.

 

[ignatius345]

My wife and I have copies of all our important documents backed up via iCloud. They've honestly been invaluable given how much we travel and live in multiple countries. My wife even flew domestically in the US with a digital copy of her drivers license and - believe it or not - a Costco membership card after she lost her purse.

Yeah, I keep an image of the front and back of my drivers license in 1Password — which I can access via my phone, Mac or in a pinch, through their website.

 

[ignatius345]

Car - Tesla hasn’t needed physical keys.

I had to help a guy on the Northern California coast once because his Tesla had locked him out. He got out of the car to look at the view or whatever and the car automatically locked after a while — with his phone in it. I helped him call his wife who was trying to get the Tesla people to unlock it remotely, but the cell signal there was weak and the car didn’t have a connection. Oops.

 

[insomniac86]

Based upon the reliability of Apple pay I can't see leaving any of these "replaced" items behind. Pay works much of the time but then it doesn't at a certain register at a certain store. Go on a trip and count on my phone having all the doc - oops I dropped my phone and now I don't have any those docs. I know I could lose my wallet and have similar issues but I just don't think we are there yet.

That’s specific to your country. In Australia we have been using tap to pay for about 10 years. Everywhere supports it here. It’s incredibly rare to find a place that doesn’t. The reliability is identical to your physical bank card. So if Apple Pay doesn’t work, neither will your physical card.

I like these additions to Wallet. The less I have to carry when leaving home the better.

The problem is that it will take a while for everything to be adopted everywhere. There are still plenty of places that don’t take ApplePay, I can only imagine how slow states will be to roll out digital IDs, and for CarKey to take off there really needs to be an after market solution people can install on existing cars.

In Australia any business that supports a card payment supports Apple Pay by default. We moved off magnetic strips and signatures over a decade ago.

 

[Robert.Walter]

My wife and I have copies of all our important documents backed up via iCloud. They've honestly been invaluable given how much we travel and live in multiple countries. My wife even flew domestically in the US with a digital copy of her drivers license and - believe it or not - a Costco membership card after she lost her purse.

when you travel, cross share your notes files of your docs with your wife and vice versa. If one of you loses a phone you have the other’s as a backup. Also lock notes. Then they are behind two verification steps.

 

[Robert.Walter]

How about the ability to add loyalty cards.

I have my hotel cards in Wallet; the apps had a link. For all others I use Stocard, it links to Wallet too.

 

[Robert.Walter]

I remember Home Depot having it work at one time. Then they decided to “update” the POS systems to something that won’t take it.

You mean POS POS I think.

 

[Robert.Walter]

It seems like adding a copy of Covid vaccination cards is an obvious and very timely miss here, especially since those cards (at least here in MA) are just too big to conveniently carry in a regular wallet. Why they didn't design them to be the same size as a credit card completely puzzles me.

I get the privacy concerns, but I think they're largely overblown in regards to this feature as all the companies pretty much already know where we're going and what we're buying at this point.

I use Apple Pay on my Apple Watch as often as I can because the convenience is really nice. Some of the Speedway gas stations have started accepting Apple Pay recently, so using it at gas stations is starting to become a reality.

Every vaccine card without a photo is nearly worthless.

Here in Switzerland we have our certs in a excellent app but also without a picture. So stupid.

 

[gene731]

I think it will be many years before all this comes to fruition. Too early to get excited.

Right. I think in real terms, even as exciting technology is now, I still consider a lot of it being in its infancy.

 

[MacClueless]

Based upon the reliability of Apple pay I can't see leaving any of these "replaced" items behind. Pay works much of the time but then it doesn't at a certain register at a certain store. Go on a trip and count on my phone having all the doc - oops I dropped my phone and now I don't have any those docs. I know I could lose my wallet and have similar issues but I just don't think we are there yet.

Not my experience at all. My iPhone has been my only key for my car and home for over a year without issue. I don’t own ANY keys, and I don’t carry a wallet just my ID and one card… and looking forward to getting rid of them!

It seems like adding a copy of Covid vaccination cards is an obvious and very timely miss here

Miss? California has a Covid card for the Apple Wallet for a while now.

Every vaccine card without a photo is nearly worthless.

Here in Switzerland we have our certs in a excellent app but also without a picture. So stupid.

Why would it need a photo? It has a name and a bar code… your ID has a phot if necessary.

 

[kerr]

I imagine that tap and pay via Apple Wallet is more widely available in my country Australia than in the US. I haven’t carried a credit card for a few years.

 

[MacClueless]

How about the ability to add loyalty cards.

It has always had that.

 

[MacClueless]

I'M HERE FOR IT! I find myself using Apple Pay more than inserting my debit card nowadays!

FWI you should never use a debit card for a purchase…

Why You Should Never Use a Debit Card To Pay for Anything

Banks love to pitch debit cards as a way to avoid spending money you don’t have. Here's why you shouldn't use debit to pay for anything, if you can help it.

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