Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are rapidly becoming one of the most powerful customer engagement channels available to brands.

What started as a place for boarding passes and tickets has evolved into a real-time, always-on customer interface — sitting directly on the lock screen of billions of smartphones.

Mobile wallets are no longer just a payments feature. They are becoming a primary surface for loyalty cards, offers, tickets, credentials, and membership experiences.

But not all wallet platforms are created equal.

If you’re evaluating software to power loyalty cards, offers, membership programs, gift cards, boarding passes, or digital credentials inside Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, here’s what truly matters.

Apple and Google Wallet are not generic distribution channels. They are highly opinionated ecosystems with strict guidelines, evolving capabilities, and deep OS-level integrations.

A serious wallet platform should:

Wallet is not a feature to bolt onto an existing product. It requires dedicated infrastructure and focus.

PassKit has been exclusively focused on mobile wallets since 2012 — when Apple Wallet was still called Passbook — giving brands more than a decade of continuous innovation and operational experience in this ecosystem.

PassKit is also recognised as a Google Wallet Premier Partner, reflecting close collaboration with Google’s wallet teams and a long-standing commitment to secure, compliant, and high-quality wallet implementations.

In infrastructure markets, proximity to the platform matters. Close alignment with Apple, Google, and the broader wallet ecosystem helps ensure programs remain compliant, future-ready, and aligned with evolving OS capabilities.

If your provider is simply generating static passes or treating wallet as a secondary channel, you’re only unlocking a fraction of its potential.

Not every wallet program starts with an engineering roadmap.

In many organisations, wallet initiatives begin with marketing, loyalty, operations, or innovation teams exploring how to engage customers more effectively.

A strong wallet platform should not require a full development team to get started.

Look for:

Low-code and no-code capabilities dramatically reduce time to launch and lower the barrier to experimentation.

In addition, availability on automation platforms such as Zapier and Make allows operational teams to trigger wallet actions — like issuing a coupon or enrolling a member — without writing code.

Wallet should empower the business — not be gated behind technical complexity.

The right platform enables:

This balance between accessibility and technical depth is what allows wallet programs to scale sustainably.

Mobile wallets have their own terminology and technical structure. But your internal teams shouldn’t need to learn it.

Look for a platform that allows you to work in business language, not wallet syntax.

For example:

Instead of requiring teams to understand pass types, fields, payload structures, or OS-specific terminology.

A well-designed platform abstracts the complexity of Apple and Google Wallet, allowing developers, marketers, and operations teams to move faster.

Clear documentation, quickstarts written in plain business language, and ready-to-use SDKs are strong indicators that the platform was designed for real-world teams — not just engineers.

The real power of mobile wallets lies in live updates.

Your platform should support:

Wallets are powerful because they are persistent and visible. But they only become transformative when they are dynamic.

Static passes are digital replicas. Dynamic passes are engagement engines.

Wallet passes often become mission-critical assets — powering loyalty, ticketing, payments, access control, and identity.

This means your provider should offer:

Mobile wallet programs are long-term infrastructure decisions. Security, compliance, and reliability should never be optional.

As wallet adoption accelerates, new vendors will enter the space — often backed by venture funding and ambitious growth plans.

When evaluating providers, consider:

Transparent pricing and no minimum commitments signal confidence in the product — and remove unnecessary barriers to innovation.

Wallet adoption should be accessible to businesses of all sizes, not locked behind opaque enterprise negotiations.

Wallet programs don’t operate in isolation.

The right platform should integrate seamlessly with:

It should also offer low-code and no-code connectivity through platforms such as Zapier and Make, allowing operational teams to trigger wallet actions without heavy development work.

If the wallet doesn’t connect to your existing systems, it becomes a static artifact instead of a living engagement channel.

Mobile wallet adoption is accelerating globally. Billions of consumers now rely on mobile wallets daily, and transaction volumes are projected to grow significantly in the coming years.

As the category expands, new entrants will continue to emerge.

When evaluating vendors, ask:

Experience matters in infrastructure markets.

Funding announcements signal belief in the opportunity.
Operational track record proves execution.

Thousands of organisations globally rely on wallet infrastructure every day — making platform maturity, operational resilience, and long-term focus critical evaluation criteria.

Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are becoming a primary interface between brands and customers.

They are persistent, high-trust, and embedded in daily consumer behaviour.

The opportunity is enormous — but unlocking it requires more than simply generating digital passes.

It requires:

Wallet is no longer experimental.

It is strategic infrastructure.

The platform you choose will determine whether wallet becomes a short-term campaign tool — or a long-term competitive advantage.