iOS 27 changes what Apple Wallet can hold and what it can do at the restaurant table and the checkout counter. Create a Pass, Apple Cash bill splitting, richer hotel keys, and a redesigned Apple Pay checkout are the main additions, and iOS 27 is now out for every supported iPhone.
While Apple Intelligence took center stage at WWDC 2026, the Wallet changes are the ones most people will notice within a day. Apple laid out the details in its services announcement, and the goal is to cut down on physical cards while making Wallet a better hub for payments, passes, and travel.
Create a Pass turns loyalty cards and event tickets into Wallet passes
The biggest addition is Create a Pass, which converts physical cards with barcodes or QR codes into digital Wallet passes for membership cards, loyalty programs, gym passes, and tickets that have no official Apple Wallet support. Apple says iPhone and Apple Watch users can both create passes.
To start, tap the plus button in Wallet and choose Create a Pass. A pass can be made automatically by pointing the camera at a card in the new Siri mode, or by hand from one of three templates: Standard, Membership, and Event. Each template has editable fields for names, dates, membership numbers, seat information, and more.
Once saved, the pass sits in Wallet and works like any other digital pass. You can change its colors and background. Visual Intelligence handles the scanning, and our walkthrough of Visual Intelligence in iOS 27 helps if a card does not scan on the first try.
Wallet also adds four barcode formats, EAN-13, Code 39, Codabar, and ITF. That widens the range of physical cards it can copy.
Apple Cash bill splitting reads the receipt but only works in the US
Bill splitting uses Apple Intelligence to work out what each person owes. Point an iPhone at a receipt in Siri mode in the Camera app, or use a photo of the bill, and Wallet picks out each item along with tax and tip. Apple says your total updates as you tap your items, and you pay back your exact share with Apple Cash.
The feature is available through Wallet, Messages, and the Camera app. It needs an itemized receipt the camera can read, and everyone in the split has to be able to send and receive Apple Cash. That requirement keeps bill splitting limited to the United States for now.
Apple Pay checkout, hotel keys, and Tap to Share get practical upgrades
Apple Pay gets a redesigned checkout in iOS 27. You can swipe through your cards more easily, and eligible cards show rewards balances, debit account balances, and financing options before you pay.
The richer pass design Apple introduced for boarding passes now extends to loyalty cards, rewards cards, gift cards, and membership passes. These passes show more detailed artwork and information directly in Wallet.
At participating hotels and resorts, a digital room key in Wallet can also show trip details, booked activities, and available services. Guests get that information without opening a separate hotel app.
Tap to Share is built on Tap to Pay on iPhone. A customer taps their iPhone on a merchant’s iPhone to share an email address, shipping details, or loyalty information, view their cart in real time, and pay with Apple Pay. It needs an iPhone 12 or newer and is not available in the European Economic Area at launch. The full breakdown is in our Tap to Share explainer.
Apple also introduced a macOS app called Pass Designer, which lets businesses and developers create and preview passes before they go live. Wallet Insights, a spending tracker that connects your payment accounts, is a separate feature covered in our Wallet Insights post.
Wallet order tracking also expands to Australia and Canada, after being limited to the United States and the United Kingdom.
Our Take
Create a Pass is the feature I expect most people to use first. Plenty of us have a gym card or a loyalty card that never made it into Wallet, and this gives us a quick way to fix that.
Bill splitting depends on everyone at the table having Apple Cash set up, which will limit how often it gets used outside a regular group of friends. The rest of the Wallet changes are smaller, and our full iOS 27 feature list shows where they fit in the wider update.
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