Google Wallet

Google Wallet starts adding support for Apple Wallet pass files

Ben Schoon | Mar 18 2024 - 7:05 am PT

Google Wallet may soon get a lot more useful for passes, as the app appears to be rolling out support for the same pass files used by Apple Wallet.

The idea of Google Wallet is to create a digital version of your actual wallet, replacing physical credit cards with your phone’s NFC chip, and even storing a digital version of your driver’s license in some states. But another big part of that is passes, digital versions of tickets and boarding passes that you’ll use when out and about. To date, though, this is an area Google Wallet has struggled.

On the iPhone, Apple Wallet has become widely used among apps and services that can distribute digital tickets and passes. Airline apps, movie tickets, and more will often have an “Add to Apple Wallet” button front and center while lacking the same functionality for Google Wallet.

Soon, though, it seems Google Wallet will be able to use the passes meant for Apple Wallet.

For some time now, Google has been working to bring support for “pkpass” files to Wallet. These files are used to add passes to Apple Wallet on the iPhone. That support appears to be starting to roll out to some Android users this week. In response to a post from Mishaal Rahman highlighting one example of the functionality working, several users have responded saying that “pkpass” files are opening in Wallet and importing to the app successfully. Sadly, we’ve been unable to replicate this functionality, which appears to be a server-side update on Google’s end.

Are you able to import Apple Wallet passes to Google Wallet? Let us know in the comments below if this is working for you.

Earlier this month, Google Wallet launched support for automatically importing movie tickets and boarding passes from Gmail, as well as letting users manually archive expired passes.