Wallet’s Create a Pass Feature Lets You Digitize Any Card in iOS 27
What You Need to Know
- “Create a Pass” feature lets users photograph physical cards and convert them into digital Wallet passes.
- Apple Wallet integration tool bypasses need for thousands of small businesses to build their own support.
- Receipt scanner in Apple Cash photographs bills, splits items between people, and sends automatic payment requests.
- IOS 27 expands Wallet as identity and commerce layer, reducing reliance on physical cards and external apps.
Apple’s most useful Wallet upgrade in iOS 27 has nothing to do with payments. The “Create a Pass” feature, reported by Bloomberg ahead of WWDC, lets users photograph physical loyalty cards, gym memberships, and event tickets and convert them into digital passes stored directly in Wallet, using templates Apple will provide for customization.
This matters because Apple Wallet has long been limited to cards and passes from participating issuers. Thousands of small gyms, local coffee shops, and regional retailers have never built Wallet integration, leaving users to carry physical cards anyway. A self-serve creation tool sidesteps that entirely, which is a more pragmatic solution than waiting for every business to adopt the standard.
Bill Splitting Gets a Camera
The second feature ties Apple Cash to a receipt scanner. Users photograph a restaurant bill, assign items to individuals, and the app calculates each person’s share including tax and tip, then sends payment requests automatically. The workflow targets the specific friction point where group dinners stall: the moment someone has to do mental math while others wait.
Venmo and Splitwise have offered itemized splitting for years, so Apple is not inventing this category. What changes is that it lives inside the same app handling the actual payment, removing the step of switching between tools.
iOS 27 is expected to be announced at WWDC in early June. Apple has been pushing Wallet as a broader identity and commerce layer, adding driver’s license support in select US states and expanding transit card coverage internationally. These two features continue that pattern: reducing the number of reasons a user needs to reach for anything other than their iPhone.
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