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flymasterv 6 hours ago

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.

dewey 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

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.

flymasterv 5 hours ago | parent | next [-]

I guess I consider Apple Pay via Wallet, which I use, to be different from Gym Membership via Wallet, which just doesn't seem worth the effort? Maybe I'm unusual.

WorldMaker 2 hours ago | parent | next [-]

Part of it is why carry a physical wallet anymore when your phone (and Apple Watch) can store all of your cards? There are even US States now that let you store your Driver's License in Apple Wallet. (And a version of Digital ID based on a US Passport that works for TSA and sometimes but not always US Customs.) There's an increased ability to leave the house just carrying your phone and not a physical wallet.

In a gym context specifically: a lot of gym wear doesn't have pockets. Being able to leave your phone and physical wallet at home or in a locker and use your watch (which you also use for workout tracking) for every membership card swipe, vending machine electrolyte/protein drink purchase, and gym class ticket can be very convenient.

rootusrootus 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

I don't like carrying physical cards around for every little thing. To me carrying a gym card around is way more effort than storing a QR code on the phone.

SJMG 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

Agreed. I use it basically every day. It's almost disquieting how quickly Apple inserted itself into payments, but it's frankly safer than a credit card and the NFC(?) works much better.

knollimar 4 hours ago | parent [-]

In NYC they had issues with the temporary card numbers they give. Apple got special privileges compared to Google wallet, where they were treating the tapping double charging being rejected as erroneous and banning the cards.

I had to switch to a physical card and the MTA advice was to get an iphone

kdheiwns 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

ghaff 4 hours ago | parent [-]

It's not seamless but a lot of people seem to be like "do your research" and install 8 different apps if you're traveling to a bunch of cities. And, yeah, anything that decreases the friction is good. I maybe know how to deal with transit without doing real research in a handful of cities but anything that decreases friction seems good.

CamJN 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

SoKamil 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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

brookst 5 hours ago | parent [-]

Yeah having gate, seat, time updating automatically is such a huge improvement for travel.

piva00 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

ghaff 5 hours ago | parent [-]

And, meanwhile, I want to have a physical card/printout I can use if something goes wrong with phone/watch.

Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate the apps on my electronic devices but I also carry paper copies whenever I can because electronic stuff breaks in various ways.

piva00 4 hours ago | parent [-]

Me too, I wouldn't only rely on electronic devices for something as essential as paying. I still carry my cards in my physical wallet with me, it's just that I haven't had the need to use them in a very long time.

djyde 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

threetonesun 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

ghaff 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

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.

biophysboy 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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