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Comment by latexr | Hacker News Reader

> My first approach was embarrassingly naive. "I'll just screenshot the QR code and add it to Apple Wallet as a static image!"

> Reader, I actually did this.

How? I’m very interested in that part.

I remember wanting it because (despite it being possible) services don’t usually allow you to add Wallet passes when you buy from the web, instead requiring you to install their app (which I do not want). But I can already see myself using this for services which don’t even provide Wallet passes.

From the author’s wording, it seems there’s a way to add such screenshots without using a third-party app.

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I use an app called Pass2Wallet that lets me turn any barcode (loyalty cards etc.) into a Wallet pass, with location based invocation etc.

Thank you for the recommendation, but I don’t want to pay a subscription for something I use sporadically, especially (according to the App Store page) an AI-generated app which tracks you. I want to do what the author mentioned: take a static image and add it to Wallet. I don’t mind some legwork.

Pass4Wallet does the same thing and does not have a subscription. It claims to not collect data on the App Store page.

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/pass4wallet-store-cards/id1423...

I don’t pay for it, but anyone with an Apple dev account can do the same with Passkit. This just makes it easy to test it out.

> anyone with an Apple dev account can do the same with Passkit.

Yes, that’s what the article is about, I read it all. But the author also mentioned the screenshot approach before using Passkit and called it the naive approach, so it’s likely they did something considerably simpler.

Feels like I’m on the worst parts of Stack Overflow and Reddit. I know other options exist, I’m asking about one specific approach. It is OK to not reply or say “I don’t know how to do it like that”. That’s fine, I don’t know either and I’m not embarrassed by that, that’s why I’m asking. I want to learn a new trick.

> But the author also mentioned the screenshot approach before using Passkit and called it the naive approach, so it’s likely they did something considerably simpler.

I guess I didn't realize it was that simple a question.

The "how" there is "take a screenshot of the first-party app". In many cases (especially with physical barcodes like a loyalty card you can just photograph), that's all you need; just keep it in your photo roll. It didn't work in this case because the QR codes contain some sort of signature or expiration date that prevents a screenshot from last week from working this week.

If it has to be in wallet, https://developer.apple.com/documentation/passkit/pkpasstype....

You can create wallet files yourself.

I mean, clearly, that’s the whole point of the article. What I’m asking is how do you make a wallet pass from a static image. Is is difficult? Is it simple? What are the steps?

This is like if I asked “how do I boil an egg” and you had answered “you can boil an egg yourself”. Yes, I know that. That’s obvious but also unhelpful. The correct (short) answer would’ve been “bring water to a boil on the stove, lower an egg into it, wait around 10 minutes, turn it off and place the egg in cold water for an easier peel”. Or “here’s a link with instructions: <URL>”.

> What I’m asking is how do you make a wallet pass from a static image. Is is difficult? Is it simple? What are the steps?

It's simple, there are lots of libraries that can generate it. You can probably even ask Claude Code or something like that to generate you one.

I understood your question as: can I do this myself or do I need an app and the answer is that you can do it yourself. The documentation for it is easily Googleable.

What you need is a signing key so you will need to pay the apple tax.

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