How Wallet push notifications work

Updating a pass and notifying the pass holder are two related but separate things.

• An update changes the content of a pass on the pass holder's device. You can change almost anything after you have issued a pass. Text, colors, images and even the pass type are all open to changes.
• A push notification is the message on the lock screen when an update arrives. Only changes to front and back fields trigger a push notification, and only if the changed field has a Change Message.

If you change images, colors, validity dates or location data, the pass updates silently in the background. The same happens if you change a field without a change message. The new value appears on the pass, but the pass holder receives no notification.

Every front and back field in the template editor has a Change Message input. This message becomes the text of the push notification when the value of the field changes. Passcreator replaces the placeholder %@ inside the change message with the new field value.

For example, take the change message Name changed to: %@ and the new field value Demo. The pass holder sees the notification Name changed to: Demo. If you want the notification to consist of the new value only, use %@ as the change message.

The wallet shows a notification only if the value has changed. If more than one field changes at the same time, the phone aggregates the notifications and shows a generic message such as Coupon changed. The wording depends on the pass type.

Push behavior differs between wallet apps.

• Apple Wallet and PassWallet on Android show change messages as push notifications automatically when you update a field with a change message.
• Google Wallet applies content updates to the pass but does not display change messages as notifications. To notify Google Wallet pass holders, use the push notification feature of Passcreator instead. See Sending a message as push notification. Google limits each pass to 3 messages that trigger a push notification within 24 hours. If Google considers your messages spam, it throttles delivery. Links in messages must relate to the pass, as Google's Acceptable Use Policy requires.

Push notifications reach a device only if all of the following are true.

• The pass holder has notifications for the pass turned on in their wallet app. This is the default setting.
• The template still uses the same certificate as at the time you created the pass. If you switch certificates, for example from a Passcreator demo certificate to your own, push updates for existing passes stop working. The pass holders have to download those passes again.
• The certificate is valid and has not expired.
• The changed field has a Change Message. Without one, the pass updates silently.

• Update one pass. Edit its personalized values, see Updating a single pass.
• Update every pass of a template. Edit the template and publish the changes, see Updating all passes of a template.
• Update many passes with individual values at once. Use a bulk process of the type Update Passes, see Bulk processing to create and update passes via CSV.
• Send a standalone message without changing pass content. See Sending a message as push notification.