Apple Wallet vs Google Wallet for loyalty cards: what’s different for your business (2026)

Stampioo writes this, and Stampioo sells loyalty cards for both Wallets, so we have no reason to favour one platform; we do have a reason to prefer Wallet cards over apps and paper, which you should keep in mind. Every behaviour described below was read on 3 November 2026 in Apple’s user guide and developer documentation or Google’s help pages and developer documentation, and the table says which. Where a platform does not document something, the table says “not documented”.

If you are new to the subject, start with how stamp cards work in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet and the loyalty card in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet feature page. The two platform guides, Apple Wallet setup and Google Wallet on Android, go into each side in depth. This page is the comparison.

The same card, two rulebooks

For the customer the card looks nearly identical: your logo, your colours, the stamps, a QR code, the reward. For the business the differences are behind the scenes, in who may save the card, what the phone shows without being opened, how many messages get through, and what happens when the phone is replaced. These are the ones that change what you tell customers at the till.

Account and phone requirements

This is the difference that produces the most support questions. On an iPhone, Apple’s user guide tells the customer to look for Add to Apple Wallet in an app, email, message or web page; a pass opened that way is added with a tap, and the only sign-in Apple mentions is for certain items added inside the Wallet app itself. On Android, Google’s developer documentation says adding a pass can only be initiated in the context of a logged-in Google identity, and Google’s help page says Wallet needs Android 9 or higher. Almost every Android phone with Google services is signed in already, so the customers who hit this are the ones with a work phone, a second-hand phone or a phone without Google services. Tell staff the sign-in screen exists so they do not assume the card is broken.

The lock screen and nearby reminders

Both platforms can show the card when the customer is close to your business, and both allow up to 10 locations per pass. The control is different. Apple’s developer documentation lets the issuer add a line of text per location (“Store nearby on 3rd and Main” in Apple’s example) and set a maximum distance, with the system using the smaller of that and its default. Google’s documentation says Google decides how close the customer needs to be and how long they need to stay, Google writes the text, and the customer must have given Google Wallet precise, always-on location access and have notifications on. In practice a nearby reminder reaches more iPhone customers than Android customers, because always-on location is a permission many people refuse. Apple also gives the customer a per-pass switch, Suggest on Lock Screen, to turn the suggestion off for your card alone.

Notifications and how many get through

Apple documents a mechanism, not a quota: when the issuer marks a field on the pass and that field changes, the customer sees a notification with the issuer’s own message, and can tap it on the lock screen to open the pass. Google documents a quota: at most 3 messages that trigger a push notification per 24 hours and at most 3 field updates that trigger one, delivered only to customers who have notifications enabled, with the notification’s appearance controlled by Google. The consequence for a business is simple: plan one campaign a day at most, and do not expect a notification for every single stamp on Android.

Stampioo sends stamp updates on every plan and targeted campaigns on Pro and Enterprise, to both platforms from the same screen. The mechanics on each phone, and what actually reaches the lock screen, are in our guide to Wallet push notifications for loyalty cards.

New phones, lost phones and deleted cards

Google is the friendlier platform here. Its transfer page lists loyalty and gift cards among the passes that automatically appear when the customer signs in to Google Wallet on a new device, and says they can be stored on multiple devices at the same time; its page on managing items says removing an account-linked pass on one device removes it across all devices. Apple’s Wallet pages say a deleted pass is permanently removed from Apple Wallet on the customer’s other devices, and do not describe restoring third-party passes to a new iPhone. So an Android upgrade usually keeps the card; an iPhone upgrade usually means scanning the QR code again. With Stampioo, staff can add the previous stamps back by hand in either case.

Pass types

Apple’s pass styles include store card, coupon, event ticket, boarding pass and generic; most loyalty cards are store cards, which use locations rather than dates for lock-screen relevance. Google’s catalogue lists Loyalty Cards, Gift Cards and Offers in retail plus a Generic Pass; a stamp card is normally a Loyalty Card pass, whose points balance field is where the stamp count lives and whose updates can trigger a notification. You do not choose the type yourself with a loyalty tool, but it explains why the two phones behave differently.

What this means for your business

• Support both from one programme and one QR code. Every tool in the table below except two does this already; you should not be issuing an iPhone-only card in a market where a large share of customers carry Android.
• Print the two taps on the counter sign for each platform: Add to Apple Wallet then Add; Add to Google Wallet then Save.
• Tell staff about the Google sign-in step and the Android 9 requirement, so a failed save is explained in ten seconds.
• Plan campaigns for Google’s cap: one a day, timed well. Apple will deliver more, but your customers will not thank you for it.
• Do not promise nearby reminders to everyone. Expect them to reach most iPhone customers and a minority of Android customers.
• Keep the stamp history where you can see it, so a new phone on either platform is a two-minute fix at the till rather than a lost customer.

Which tools support both Wallets

Prices as shown on each vendor’s pricing page on 3 November 2026, no currency conversion.

The full ten-tool comparison, with trials and the honest trade-offs, is on the Loopy Loyalty alternatives page, and plans and pricing shows what each Stampioo plan includes.