Apple Wallet vs Google Wallet for loyalty cards

Every phone your customers carry already has a wallet on it. On an iPhone it is Apple Wallet. On Android it is Google Wallet. Both hold boarding passes, tickets, bank cards and, when a shop offers one, loyalty cards.

If you are choosing a loyalty system, the question is not which wallet to support. You need both, because your customers are split roughly down the middle and you do not get to pick their phones. The question is what each wallet does with your card, so you know what your customers will see.

The card itself

Both wallets show a card with your logo, your colours and a barcode or QR code. Both show the customer's progress: how many stamps they have, how many points, or how much prepaid credit is left.

Apple Wallet passes have a fixed layout. There is a header with your logo, a strip image across the top, a few fields for the numbers, and a barcode at the bottom. That constraint is a feature: every pass in every Apple Wallet looks like it belongs there, and your card inherits that polish.

Google Wallet passes are a little looser. There is a hero image, a card colour, a title and a set of text rows. Google's layout has changed more often over the years, so a design that looked right in 2023 can look different today. A good loyalty system generates both from one design and keeps up with the changes, so you design once.

The lock screen

This is where the two wallets differ most.

Apple Wallet can show a pass on the lock screen when the customer is near one of your locations. You register the shop's coordinates with the card, and when their phone is within a couple of hundred metres, the card surfaces with your name on it. They do not open anything. It is already there when they reach the counter.

Google Wallet supports the same idea through location-based notifications, but Android handles it more conservatively and the customer has to allow location access for Wallet. In practice, more of your iPhone customers will see the card appear on their lock screen than your Android customers will.

Messages

Both wallets can carry messages from you to the card holder.

On Apple, a message is a change to the pass. When you update a field on the back of the card, the phone shows a notification with the new text. It arrives on the lock screen like any other notification, with your logo, and tapping it opens the card.

On Google, messages are a native part of the pass. You send a message with a title and a body, and Google Wallet shows it as a notification and keeps it in a messages list on the card.

The practical result is the same: a note from you lands on the customer's phone without an app, an email address or a phone number. Open rates for these are high because they sit on the lock screen and there is nothing to filter them out.

Adding the card

The step where you lose or keep a customer is the moment they add the card.

On an iPhone, the customer scans your QR code, taps "Add to Apple Wallet", and the card is in. Two taps.

On Android, the customer scans the same QR code and taps "Add to Google Wallet". If they are signed in to their Google account, which nearly everyone is, it is also two taps. If your sign-up page is shown inside another app's browser, Google may refuse the save, which is why a loyalty system should always open its sign-up page in the phone's real browser.

What you cannot do in either

Neither wallet lets you run a full app inside the pass. There is no ordering, no payments, no menu. That is fine. A loyalty card's job is to show progress, bring the customer back and carry the occasional message. Anything more belongs somewhere else.

Neither wallet gives you the customer's phone number or email by default. What you get is the card holder's presence: the card is on their phone and you can reach it. If you want an email address, ask for it on your sign-up form and explain why.

One price for both

Supporting two wallets should not mean paying twice. On Wallet Loyalty, Apple Wallet and Google Wallet come in the same plan: €19 per location per month, with 500 customers included. You can run it free for 14 days first, and there is a 30-day money-back guarantee once you subscribe. You design the card once and both versions follow it.

What to look for in a loyalty system

Given all of that, here is what matters when you pick a system:

• It issues both Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes from one design.
• It supports location on the pass, so iPhone customers see your card at the door.
• It sends messages to both wallets in one action.
• It opens the sign-up in a real browser, so Android saves do not fail.
• It updates every pass in every wallet when you change the design or the reward.

Your customers do not think about which wallet they use. They think about whether your card is there when they need it. Support both, keep the design simple, and put your shop's location on the pass.

See the difference on your phone. Add our demo card to Apple Wallet or to Google Wallet and watch what it does at the counter.