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flymastervtoday at 12:56 PM9 repliesview on HN

I’ve always felt like Wallet is mostly a solution in search of a problem, but maybe more adoption will help?

I don’t really believe that places that require membership cards are going to let users start creating their own, though.


Replies

deweytoday at 1:04 PM

I think Wallet might be the most used feature for many on the iPhone, especially if they pay with their phone. What makes you think it's looking for a problem to solve?

I think Wallet is great and the adoption in certain areas like boarding passes is almost 100% and it beats digging through email to find some pdf and zooming in on some QR code when you have to present it (Hoping that your screen doesn't rotate in the worst possible moment). Also many big cities support it for public transport and most banking apps allow you to use your credit cards there for Apple Pay.

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kdheiwnstoday at 1:33 PM

Being able to have train/bus passes on my phone whenever I go to another country is nice. Some places are a pain in the ass because even different cities have their own systems and they're all given names like IBCJ or JGCUVFGIB as if anyone is supposed to figure how to look them up. And oftentimes physical passes can only be bought from machines in select areas. And when going to undeveloped areas (particularly Europe), the few machines that do exist are broken and look like they were abandoned years ago, leaving the only option to track down where some rail staff are and trying to find someone who won't just wave you away without even looking at your face and hoping they'll help get you a pass instead of needing to get annoying one time tickets. Then sometimes places just tell you to install an app to buy tickets. That app requires a local phone number and address to verify.

Apple wallet lets me install passes and charge them up without even being in the country that I'll be visiting yet. It makes things massively more tedious. I wish more European countries supported it, because as much as Europeans have some weird pride in their public transportation, they're more complicated and backwards than even the poorest Asian nations. Being able to add any pass to Apple wallet would be a huge step in resolving that.

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CamJNtoday at 1:02 PM

The kid behind the counter at most places is neither paid nor trained enough to identify if the digital card in my phone’s wallet comes from their app or if I made it myself.

As long as it scans they don’t care.

piva00today at 1:02 PM

Wallet is already plenty useful to me.

Ticketing is a great use-case for it, I have flight tickets, concerts/events tickets, airport bus tickets, if it keeps expanding to integrate with even more tickets (my local public transportation system, the express train to the airport, more venues) it will only become more useful.

Edit: also, all of my cards, I haven't used a physical card at POS terminals in years, they only get used on ATMs.

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SoKamiltoday at 1:02 PM

Having boarding passes in Wallet which also update real time is so nice. Same thing with other tickets for events.

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djydetoday at 1:15 PM

I use Wallet purely to satisfy my collecting habit. I like to add movie tickets to it after purchasing them in the movie app, so I can look back at all the movies I've watched from many years ago until now.

ghafftoday at 1:59 PM

I don't know about most used app. But it seems a useful backup for specific vendor/site-specific apps when traveling for a variety of reasons. It gives me a ticket for a specific purpose on my phone when I may not be in a position to print one out--which many people don't do these days for misguided reasons anyway.

threetonesuntoday at 1:06 PM

I still see people amazed when I pay for stuff with my Apple Watch. The only other place I know that reliably uses the Apple Watch with wallet outside of payment is Disney World, but the experience there was ok at best as I was managing my entire family and I'm pretty sure they would rather sell you multiple magic bands, but seeing as how phones will never get smaller I'd love more places to support tapping my watch on things.

biophysboytoday at 1:22 PM

I don't really think of it as an app; I think of it as the "double-tap side button to do tap to pay or present my ticket" iPhone feature