Google Wallet will soon support passes from Apple devices

Summary

• Google Wallet could soon get better with support for Apple’s pkpass files, making it easier to share passes across platforms.
• Support for pkpass files in Google Wallet is currently available for some users around the world, with no details on its wider release.
• In the past, adding a pkpass file to Google Wallet required downloading a third-party app from the Play Store.

Google Wallet has come a long way since its early days, including going through a couple of rebrands. The consolidated app for passes, tickets, credit/debit cards, boarding passes, etc., on your Android phone is routinely getting better with new features while also ensuring more countries and banks start supporting the app. However, Google’s offering doesn’t support the .pkpass file format, which is used by Apple for passes stored in its own Wallet app. That appears to be changing now, at least for a few people around the world, who are reporting the ability to import .pkpass files onto the Google Wallet app.

Android expert Mishaal Rahman was reportedly informed of this newly added pkpass compatibility in Wallet by a user on Telegram. But Rahman says the feature isn’t live for him yet, meaning this could be part of a limited rollout in some parts of the world. Since .pkpass is part of Apple’s walled garden, importing such passes from an iPhone to Android hasn’t been possible so far.

The video above illustrates how one goes about adding a .pkpass file to Google Wallet. The user credited for this video, Cob, first opens the .pkpass file from a file manager app, which then returns a permissions window, with Google Photos being the default choice. However, the list below shows a few other options, including Wallet.

We’re not sure if the Wallet option has appeared previously, but as this video shows, selecting Google Wallet instantly opens up the .pkpass file within the app, taking users to the Add pass screen containing details on the safety of your pass along with a preview. The user then proceeds by pressing Continue and is taken to the next screen, which explains how Wallet manages data. Tapping I Agree & Add in the bottom right corner of the screen completes the process.

An end to using third-party apps

There’s no word on when Google Wallet will make .pkpass support widely available to all users, but since it’s already appearing to some people, we feel it’s right around the corner. Until this rolls out broadly, the only way to properly open a .pkpass file on Wallet is by using third-party apps, with Pass2Pay on the Play Store being a popular choice. However, with Google Wallet now working on supporting .pkpass imports directly, most of these apps could become redundant.