Apple Wallet or Google Wallet: what changes for your loyalty card

One customer holds out an iPhone, the next pulls out a Samsung, the third has a phone whose brand you have never seen. In the middle of the rush, you are not going to ask each of them what they have in their pocket. You do not have to.

Digikart issues both cards. Your poster carries a single QR code. When the customer scans it, their card is created and the page offers them both buttons, “Add to Apple Wallet” and “Add to Google Wallet”: they tap the one for their phone. If their phone supports neither wallet, a web card takes over in the browser. The customer installs no app.

One legitimate question remains: so your customers do not all see exactly the same thing. Here is where the real differences lie, and which ones matter to you.

The essentials do not change. On iPhone as on Android, the card shows the name of your business, your colours, the customer's stamp or points balance, the reward they are aiming for and a QR code that you scan.

The gesture at the counter is the same on both sides. The customer shows their card, you scan it with the iPhone app or from a browser, the stamp is credited. Your dashboard makes no distinction: you see customers there, not operating systems.

In other words, everything that keeps a loyalty programme running works identically. The differences that follow concern presentation, and what the phone does on its own.

On iPhone, the card contains the address of a web service. When its content changes, our server sends a silent notification to the device, and the phone fetches the new version on its own. Apple describes how this works in its documentation: the notification carries no data, it only signals that an update is available, and the customer has nothing to do.

On Android, the card lives on Google's servers. When you credit a visit, Digikart updates the card at Google, and the customer's phone follows. The path is not the same, the result is.

In practice: the customer who leaves with their eighth coffee has eight on their card without having opened anything. That is the whole difference from the paper card, which only gets updated if you have the stamp in your hand and they have their card on them.

Apple Wallet displays a file that we build for you. The colour and name of your business are there from the free plan. The logo, the visual banner, the text colour and the name you give your units (“coffees”, “washes”, “sessions”) reach the customer's screen exactly as they are, from the Plus plan.

Google Wallet works differently. You supply the same building blocks, logo, colour, banner, balance, reward, and Google arranges them in its own template. The result stays in your colours and consistent with the rest of the customer's wallet, but the layout is not pixel for pixel the same as on iPhone.

The practical consequence fits in one sentence: do not judge your card on a single phone. Look at it once on each system, check that your name reads clearly and that the balance stands out, then move on. Your customers, for their part, will never compare.

iOS 27 introduced a new layout for loyalty cards, membership cards and gift cards. Apple calls it “Poster Generic”: a large image fills the card, your name is displayed in large type, and up to two buttons appear just below the card.

At Digikart, these two buttons have a purpose. The first opens the customer's benefits page: their balance, their rewards, their history. The second is yours: order, book an appointment, show your offers or call you. The large-format card is included from the Plus plan. You set it up in My card, with an accurate preview, and switch it on when you are happy with it.

Nobody loses anything in the switch. The card file contains both layouts: an iPhone still on an earlier version of iOS keeps the classic card, and on Android the Google Wallet card does not change. Your customers have nothing to reinstall, the cards already on their phone update themselves.

This is the least known difference, and the one that causes the most misunderstandings. Both wallets can react when the customer passes near your business, but not in the same way.

On iPhone, you provide the address of your business and a text of your choice. When the customer is nearby, their card can come up on the lock screen with your sentence, for example “Your loyalty card is waiting for you 👋”. This text is the same for all your customers: it announces your business, it does not count each person's stamps. Apple describes this mechanism as passive: nothing rings, nothing is forced on anyone, it is the system that decides to present the card in the right place.

On Android, it is a real notification pushed by Google. It is meant to stay displayed as long as the customer is on site and to disappear when they move away. This is where Android does better than iPhone: the notification is seen on its own, whereas the Apple card only waits to be looked at. On the other hand, it only goes to customers who have allowed notifications and continuous precise location for Google Wallet. And Google states clearly that it decides the distance and the time spent nearby, and that it writes the text. Yours is not displayed.

To remember: the proximity notification, included in the Pro plan, is a timely reminder, not a channel you control. On iPhone you write the message but the customer has to look at their screen; on Android the reminder is seen but Google writes it.

The customer on iPhone sees a card in your colours, stored next to their bank card, which updates at every visit and can come up on their lock screen when they walk past your shop. If they are on iOS 27 and you have switched on the large format, they see your name in large type and two buttons below the card.

The customer on Android sees the same card, laid out by Google, with the same balance and the same reward. They find their benefits in the card's links, and Google can remind them that you exist when they are at your door. The customer without a wallet opens their card in their browser, with the same balance and the same code to show.

For you, nothing changes from one customer to the next: one poster, one QR code, one scan. The only decision that is yours is the plan. The free plan already issues both cards, with no limit on customers. The Plus plan dresses up the card, unlocks the large format on iPhone and sends 3 notifications a month. The Pro plan adds unlimited notifications and the proximity notification.