Access credential types
There are different types of access from Apple Wallet, such as hospitality, corporate badges, student IDs, home keys and car keys.
Hospitality
Hotel room keys in Apple Wallet help deliver an easy and contactless experience from check-in to check-out, while providing additional privacy and security benefits for guests on top of traditional plastic hotel key cards. Hotel guests at supported locations can tap to unlock with room keys in Apple Wallet on their compatible iPhone devices and Apple Watch Series 4 or later.
The capabilities in Apple Wallet are specifically designed to reduce friction for the customer:
Pre-arrival provisioning from the hotel’s app to add a pass to Apple Wallet ahead of a stay
Check-in pass tiles to initiate check-ins and room assignments from Apple Wallet
Post-provisioning key updates to support extending or modifying current stays
Multi-room key support for a single pass in Apple Wallet
Auto-archiving of expired keys in Apple Wallet
Corporate badges
Employee badges of supported partners can be added to Apple Wallet on iPhone and Apple Watch, allowing employees around the world to have contactless access to their workplaces. To add a badge, an employee must have multifactor authentication enabled for their account used to sign in to the app provided by their employer.
Employee badge takes advantage of Apple’s access capabilities, allowing users to:
Automatically add an employee badge to their paired Apple Watch through push provisioning that doesn’t require installing a partner’s app
Seamlessly access office amenities utilising express mode
Gain access to the workplace even after their iPhone runs out of battery
Student ID cards
In iOS 12 or later, students and staff at participating schools and campuses can add their student ID card to Apple Wallet on supported models of iPhone and Apple Watch to access locations and pay wherever their card is accepted.
A user adds their student ID card to Apple Wallet through an app provided by the card issuer or participating institution. The technical process by which this occurs is the same as the one described in Adding credit or debit cards from a card issuer’s app. In addition, issuing apps must support two-factor authentication on the accounts that guard access to their student IDs. A card may be set up simultaneously on up to any two supported Apple devices signed in with the same Apple ID.
Multi-family homes
Tenants and staff of supported partner facilities can use their home key in Apple Wallet to access their building, unit and common areas. The home key can be provisioned from the app provided by the partner. For partners that support frictionless provisioning, property managers can send tenants a link to initiate provisioning using their preferred messaging channel (for example, email or SMS) so that the tenant only needs to click the link to redeem the key. App Clips also provide a secure and seamless experience, making it possible to provision a key without installing a partner’s app. For more information, see the Apple Support article Use App Clips on iPhone.
Home key
A home key in Apple Wallet can be used with supported NFC-enabled door locks with a simple tap of an iPhone or Apple Watch. For more information about how a user can set up and use a home key, see the Apple Support article Unlock your door with a home key on iPhone.
When a user sets up a home key, all residents in their household also automatically receive the home key. To further share a home key or remove a member of a shared home, the owner of a home can use the Home app to manage invitations and members. When a user chooses to accept an invitation to join a home with a home key, this initiates provisioning of the home key into Apple Wallet on their devices. If a user chooses to leave a home or if the home owner withdraws their access, these actions also remove the home key from Apple Wallet.
Car key
Storing car keys digitally in Apple Wallet is supported natively in compatible iPhone devices and paired Apple Watch devices. Car keys are represented as passes (created by Apple on behalf of the carmaker) in Apple Wallet and support the full Apple Pay card life cycle (iCloud Lost Mode, Remote Wipe, local pass deletion, and Erase All Content and Settings). In addition to the standard Apple Pay card management, shared car keys can be deleted from the owner’s iPhone, Apple Watch, and in the vehicle’s Human Machine Interface (HMI).
Car keys can be used to unlock and lock the vehicle and to start the engine or set the vehicle into drive mode. The “standard transaction” offers mutual authentication and is mandatory for engine start. Unlock and lock transactions may use the “fast transaction” when required for performance reasons.
Keys are created through pairing an iPhone with an owned and supported vehicle. All keys are created on the embedded Secure Element based on elliptic curve (NIST P-256) onboard key generation (ECC-OBKG), and the private keys never leave the Secure Element. Communication between devices and the vehicle use either NFC or a combination of Bluetooth LE and UWB, and key management uses an Apple-to-carmaker server API with mutually authenticated TLS. After a key is paired to an iPhone, any Apple Watch paired to that iPhone can also receive a key. When a key is deleted either in the vehicle or on the device, it can’t be restored. Keys on lost or stolen devices can be suspended and resumed, but reprovisioning them on a new device requires a new pairing or sharing.