Google Wallet is more than Google’s tap-to-pay app. Over the years, Wallet has expanded into a sort of all-in-one digital document manager for anything and everything you might keep in a real wallet — transit passes, event tickets, store loyalty cards, and more.

Last August, Wallet got support to create custom passes for pretty much anything, and more recently, Google rolled out the ability to edit those passes without having to completely recreate them from scratch. If you haven’t interacted with this Wallet’s custom pass functionality much, there’s quite a bit to wrap your head around. Here’s everything you need to know.

What is a custom pass?

Google Wallet’s got bespoke onboarding for payment cards, transit passes, loyalty cards, gift cards, and IDs. For anything else, you can use an Everything else option to create a custom pass.

When you add a pass through this method, Wallet will do its best to automatically detect the type of document you’re uploading to give the resulting digital pass relevant artwork. It can detect event tickets, insurance cards of multiple types, loyalty cards, student IDs, business cards, and more. Any document that doesn’t fall into one of Wallet’s predefined buckets will be added as “Other.”

Illustration of a phone with Google Wallet open, surrounded by tickets and documents that can be added in Google Wallet.

Related


12 things to add to Google Wallet that aren’t your credit card

Use Google Wallet for more than payments

How to create a custom pass

Creating a custom pass only takes a few steps, and Google Wallet does most of the work for you. The main thing you have to do manually is scan the document using your phone’s camera. Here’s how it works.

  1. Open the Google Wallet app.
  2. Tap the Add to Wallet button in the lower right corner.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red arrow pointing to 'Add to Wallet'

  3. Tap Everything else.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red box around 'Everything else'

  4. Line your document up in the viewfinder and tap the capture button.
  5. On the next screen, you can crop, rotate, or retake the photo. If what you got looks good, tap Done.

    The Google Wallet interface, showing a censored insurance card

  6. Wallet will take a moment to process, then show the resulting pass.
  7. Verify the info on your custom pass is correct. If it’s right, tap Add. If it’s incomplete or inaccurate, tap Edit.

    The Google Wallet interface showing a custom pass being added

Additional information fields added in the Edit view in step 7 above aren’t displayed on the custom pass graphic. To view any information added manually, tap the three-dot icon in the top right corner when viewing your pass.

How to edit a custom pass

Google just recently introduced the option to edit custom passes after adding them to Wallet, saving you the hassle of reuploading a pass if you spot an error or omission. Here’s how to do that.

  1. Open the Google Wallet app.
  2. Tap the pass you want to edit.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red rectangle around a custom car insurance card

  3. Tap the three-dot icon in the upper right corner.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red arrow pointing to the overflow menu icon for a custom pass

  4. Scroll down and tap Edit.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red rectangle around the edit button for a custom pass

  5. Make your changes, then tap Save.

    The Google Wallet interface with a red rectangle around the Save button on the Edit pass info screen

You’re also able to add additional information fields in the edit view, in case the initial upload missed a detail like your vehicle identification number on a car insurance card.

A surface with the Google Wallet logo next to the Samsung Wallet logo, surrounded by several credit cards.

Related


Google Wallet vs. Samsung Wallet: Which is better?

Which digital wallet should you be using?

An easy way to digitize all your docs

Google Wallet’s custom pass functionality makes the app infinitely more useful, and Google’s recent decision to allow users to edit documents after uploading them makes it even more convenient still. It’s a great way to keep documents you might occasionally need at hand without actually needing to carry around all that paper.