How to Create Apple Passes with Pass Designer

Key Takeaways:

Pass Designer is a new macOS 27 app (in beta) that lets businesses design and preview Apple Wallet passes with real-time iPhone and Apple Watch rendering.

iOS 27 shipped on September 14, 2026, with a separate consumer feature called Create a Pass that turns physical cards and QR codes into digital passes using three templates: Standard, Membership, and Event.

Pass Designer works alongside Pass Builder, a Swift-on-server package that signs and distributes passes programmatically.

Apple Wallet now supports four new barcode types (EAN-13, Code 39, Codabar, ITF) and a new Poster Generic template with Featured Actions tiles.

User-generated passes are static snapshots: balances, loyalty points, and time-sensitive QR codes do not update, and some stores reject them.

Pass Designer: Apple’s New macOS Tool for Wallet Passes

Pass Designer is a macOS application that lets a business create and preview Apple Wallet passes without manually writing the underlying JSON. Apple’s developer page describes it as a tool for “local fitness center, small music venue, global airline, or national coffee chain” alike. You start from templates provided by Apple or your own, add logos, backgrounds, and strip images from your preferred design tool, then finish the pass in the app.

Limits and Where User-Made Passes Break Down

The main feature is the preview. As you edit, Pass Designer updates a live preview that uses the same rendering engine as iOS and watchOS, so what you see on the Mac matches exactly what a customer sees on their device. That closes a long-standing gap where developers had to push a test pass to a phone repeatedly to check layout and color.

Beyond preview, the app handles the details of pass design directly. You can adjust background, foreground, and label colors, edit standard fields per pass type, and rely on built-in validation that flags missing required key values and unexpected definitions as you work. The app also supports “adaptable layouts” that take advantage of the latest Apple Wallet features while remaining compatible with older pass structures.

The Consumer Side: Create a Pass in iOS 27

Pass Designer is for businesses. The consumer feature is Create a Pass, which arrived with iOS 27 on September 14, 2026, as 9to5Mac and MacRumors reported. It appears behind the plus button in the Wallet app and lets a user create a pass in two ways: scan a physical card with the camera (using Apple Intelligence, which requires an iPhone 15 Pro or newer), or build one manually from scratch.

Manual creation offers three templates: Standard, Membership, and Event. A user can import a barcode or QR code, add contact information, coupon codes, dates, and insurance details. The goal, as 9to5Mac described it, is to make Wallet the central hub for passes whether they are digital or physical. Apple’s broader iOS 27 Wallet update also added four new barcode types to pass display: EAN-13, Code 39, Codabar, and ITF.

The distinction matters. Create a Pass produces a user-generated pass that is not issued by the business behind the card. Pass Designer produces a business-issued pass that carries official distribution, updates, and validation.

The Design-to-Distribution Workflow

Pass Designer does not distribute passes by itself. Apple’s What’s new in Wallet page pairs it with Pass Builder, a Swift-on-server package that creates, signs, and distributes passes programmatically. The process is: design and preview in Pass Designer, then deploy the template for distribution using Pass Builder, which provides an API for building and signing Wallet passes.

On the template side, Apple introduced a new “Poster Generic” pass template aimed at loyalty, rewards, membership, and gift cards. These passes include interactive tiles called Featured Actions that provide useful information through universal links to additional web pages, such as a museum membership pass linking to exhibit details or renewal pages.

For airlines, the boarding pass template added a Services and Upgrades section that publishes date-of-travel information and universal links to services on the airline’s site, alongside Live Activities for flight status. Event ticketing gained multi-event support, letting a single season ticket or membership pass include every upcoming event with per-event guides, seating, and management links that can be updated remotely.

Pass Designer vs. Create a Pass: Two Different Tools

The two tools share the Wallet name but serve different users, and confusing them leads to wrong expectations. The table below separates them on the key points for a buying decision.

Dimension	Pass Designer (macOS 27)	Create a Pass (iOS 27)
Who it is for	Businesses and developers issuing passes	Individual iPhone users digitizing their own cards
Platform	macOS 27 (beta)	iPhone, iOS 27
Templates	Apple-provided or custom, including Poster Generic	Standard, Membership, Event
Preview	Real-time iPhone and Apple Watch rendering	On-device Wallet view
Distribution	Via Pass Builder (Swift-on-server, signed)	Saved locally to the user’s Wallet
Dynamic data	Supports remote updates and semantic tags	Static snapshot; no auto-updating balances

The difference is clearest on updates. A pass built in Pass Designer and distributed through Pass Builder can push changes remotely, update event details, and carry semantic tags that feed Siri and Maps. A pass created with Create a Pass is a fixed snapshot of whatever barcode or number the user scanned at that moment.

Limits and Where User-Made Passes Break Down

The consumer feature’s limits are well documented in field reports. Cybernews found that user-made passes may not work where staff require the original card or the official app, and that loyalty points, access permissions, and account balances do not appear because the pass is a static copy. Time-sensitive or rotating QR codes also fail, since gyms and some retailers generate a unique code each visit.

User testimonials collected by Cybernews illustrate the split. One user reported a Costco membership pass nearly got them flagged before they showed the physical card. Another said an LA Fitness employee asked whether the scan came from the official app, then made them re-scan from it. The feature also worked well for library cards at self-checkout and for insurance cards where the provider’s own app lacked a mobile-friendly card view.

For businesses, the trade-off runs the other direction. Pass Designer and Pass Builder remove the effort of hand-writing pass JSON and managing signing certificates, but they are new and in beta. The macOS 27 requirement limits the available tooling at launch, and the distribution step still depends on a server-side component that a small business must host or integrate. A shop that only needs a static loyalty barcode might find the consumer Create a Pass route sufficient for its customers, while a chain that needs dynamic balances, remote updates, and semantic tags needs the full Pass Designer plus Pass Builder setup.

The adoption context is favorable. PYMNTS reported in its Apple Pay @11 study that 31% of shoppers used a mobile wallet weekly in 2026, up from 14% in August 2024, with Apple Pay reaching 16% weekly in-store usage, double its 2024 share. That is the demand base Apple is now letting businesses serve directly with native design tools rather than third-party pass SDKs.

FAQ

What is Apple Pass Designer? Pass Designer is a macOS app, currently in beta for macOS 27, that lets businesses design and preview Apple Wallet passes. It provides Apple templates, color and field editing, validation, and a real-time preview rendered with the same engine as iOS and watchOS.

How does Pass Designer differ from Create a Pass? Pass Designer is a business-facing design tool on macOS that produces official, distributable passes. Create a Pass is an iOS 27 consumer feature that lets individuals digitize their own physical cards or QR codes into static passes using Standard, Membership, or Event templates.

How are passes designed in Pass Designer distributed? Apple pairs Pass Designer with Pass Builder, a Swift-on-server package that creates, signs, and distributes Wallet passes through an API.

What new barcode types does Apple Wallet support in iOS 27? Apple Wallet passes can now display EAN-13, Code 39, Codabar, and ITF barcodes in addition to previously supported formats.

Do user-generated passes update automatically? No. Passes created with the consumer Create a Pass feature are static snapshots. Loyalty points, account balances, and rotating or time-sensitive QR codes do not update, and some businesses require the original card or official app instead.

More in-depth coverage from this blog on closely related topics:

Sources and References

Sources cited while researching and writing this article: