Every major smartphone has a wallet built in. Getting a loyalty programme or campaign to work well across both requires understanding how the two platforms differ. This article covers what those differences are, and how Passform handles the complexity so you don't have to.
Apple Wallet and Google Wallet behave differently. For a marketing team planning a loyalty programme, event campaign, or membership product, those differences matter. They affect how passes display, what location triggers are available, and how far a campaign reaches across device types. Understanding the differences helps you design better campaigns. Managing them separately is a different problem, and not one that should land on your team.
Passform handles both platforms from a single configuration. A team specifies the pass design, the campaign logic, and the notification rules once. Passform generates the correct format for each device at issuance and keeps pace with specification updates from Apple and Google as they happen. The technical differences between the two platforms are absorbed at the infrastructure level. What the marketing team controls is the content, the offer, and the workflow.
Here is what actually differs between the platforms, and what it means for how you design campaigns.
How each platform handles pass design
Apple Wallet uses a fixed card template: a front face and a back face. The front displays core pass information (logo, member name, balance, barcode). The back holds additional fields. Apple enforces consistent design constraints across devices, which produces reliable visual output but limits how much information is immediately visible.
Google Wallet uses a scrollable card layout. More fields are visible without any additional action from the consumer. For passes carrying a lot of information, including event tickets with detailed venue notes or membership cards summarising multiple benefit tiers, Google Wallet offers more surface to work with.
Passform generates both formats from a single pass specification. The design is configured once; the platform adapts the output for each device. What is worth knowing upfront is which fields appear prominently on each template, so the information architecture works well on both rather than being retrofitted after the fact.
How each platform handles location
Both Apple Wallet and Google Wallet now support location-triggered pass notifications, though they work differently in ways that affect how passive the consumer experience is.
Apple Wallet uses iBeacon and GPS to surface a pass automatically on the lock screen when a consumer is near a relevant location. A loyalty member walking into a store sees their card appear without opening anything and without any setup on their part. The trigger is automatic and ambient.
Google Wallet introduced Nearby Passes notifications at Google I/O in May 2025. Using a blend of GPS, Wi-Fi signals, and motion patterns, it surfaces a pass notification on the lock screen when a consumer is near a location tied to one of their stored passes, at roughly the same 100-metre trigger radius as Apple. The difference is opt-in behaviour: Nearby Passes is not enabled by default. Consumers need to turn it on, either globally or per pass, through the Wallet settings.
For campaigns where proximity triggering is a core mechanic, both platforms now deliver it. The practical distinction is that Apple's version is passive from day one; Google's depends on the consumer having enabled the feature. For loyalty programmes with an engaged base who are likely to have opted in, the gap is small. For campaigns relying on ambient reach across the full Android audience, it is worth factoring into expectations.
How each platform reaches your audience
Market share varies by region, and it affects the relative importance of each platform for a given campaign.
In Australia and New Zealand, iOS accounts for roughly 55-57% of smartphones. The United States and United Kingdom sit in a similar range. Globally, Android holds approximately 71% of the market, with stronger presence across Southeast Asia, South Asia, and Latin America.
For most ANZ and US programmes, the enrolled audience splits roughly 55% Apple, 45% Android. For international campaigns, or programmes in markets where Android leads, Google Wallet becomes the primary channel for a larger share of the audience.
Both platforms update their wallet specifications regularly, covering design requirements, notification behaviour, and certificate management. Programmes that fall behind those updates see passes display incorrectly or features degrade. Passform tracks and implements those changes as they happen. The programmes it runs stay current without the marketing team or their technical partners having to manage it.
What works the same on both
Push notifications work on both platforms. A notification appears on the lock screen, the consumer taps, the pass opens. Wallet pass notifications run at 8-20% action rates across both platforms, compared to 0.5-2% for loyalty programme email (Klaviyo, 2024). Device type is not the meaningful variable. Message relevance and timing drive the difference.
Real-time updates work on both. A balance change, a redeemed offer, a newly available reward: all of these update in the pass without the consumer taking any action.
Barcode scanning and in-person redemption work on both. The point-of-sale mechanics are the same regardless of device.
What this means for the marketing team
The design work happens once. Passform handles the rest. Campaign logic, offer structure, notification timing, and audience segmentation are all configured in one place and delivered across device types without duplication.
What is worth spending time on is the campaign itself: what the pass communicates, what triggers fire, what the member receives and when. The differences between Apple Wallet and Google Wallet are real, and understanding them helps design campaigns that use each well. Tracking Apple and Google's evolving specifications and rebuilding pass infrastructure when they change is not that work. Passform absorbs that so the team can focus on the part that drives outcomes.
One thing worth saying directly: both platforms move quickly. Google's Nearby Passes feature did not exist a year ago. Apple updates its Wallet specifications regularly, and Google does the same. Passform monitors those changes and updates its systems to keep pace, so programmes running on Passform stay current without requiring any action from the marketing team or their technical partners. If something has changed since this article was written, it is already reflected in how Passform operates.
The features described here are accurate as of June 2025. If you are reading this later and want to know what has changed, get in touch and we'll be happy to help.
