Location-Based Lock-Screen Reminders for Wallet Cards

A location-based notification for a wallet pass makes a stored card appear on the lock screen when the phone enters a set area. For example, a coffee shop loyalty card can pop up automatically as a customer walks toward the storefront.

See also: How to Add a Loyalty Card to Apple Wallet (Customer and Shop Guide) · Apple Wallet Loyalty Card: How Shops Issue and Update Them

This article explains how Apple Wallet uses pass locations and geofence triggers to show cards at the right moment. You will learn how to add up to ten relevant locations per pass, choose a radius around each spot, and set helpful messages such as “Show this card to earn points.” The guide also covers why this works without an app being open, what happens when a customer leaves and returns to the area, and practical setup tips for cafes, salons, gyms, and retail stores.

How Lock Screen Alerts Work

A location-based wallet pass uses a small geographic boundary, often called a geofence, around a physical address. When a customer with your pass saved in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet crosses that boundary, the phone can trigger a lock screen notification. No app needs to be open. The pass sits quietly in the wallet until the location condition is met.

What the Customer Sees

Imagine a customer who saved a loyalty card from your cafe three weeks ago. They drive within a few hundred metres of your shop on the way to work. Their phone detects the pass location and shows a subtle alert on the lock screen. It might say your cafe name, a short message such as “Your stamp card is ready” or “Show this for 10% off today,” and an icon for the pass.

The customer taps the notification. The wallet opens directly to your card. There is no search, no digging through email, and no need to remember that the card exists. The pass itself is the reminder.

How the Trigger Works

The trigger is based on proximity, not precise timing. A salon can set the geofence radius around the building entrance. A restaurant with a car park might set a wider radius so the alert appears while the customer is still parking, not after they have already walked in and ordered.

You define the location when you create the pass. The phone compares its current position to that location in the background. When the phone enters the radius, the lock screen notification appears. The same pass can also include a time window. A gym could set the alert to appear only between 06:00 and 09:00, when members are most likely to be deciding where to train. A car wash could set the alert for daylight hours only.

What This Looks Like in Practice

A coffee shop adds a stamp card pass. The geofence is set to 150 metres around the front door. A regular customer walks past on the way to the station. The lock screen shows the pass with a message: “You need one more stamp for a free coffee.” The customer stops in.

A hair salon uses a loyalty card with a longer purchase cycle. The geofence is set to 300 metres. A client who visited eight weeks ago drives past. The lock screen alert says: “Your loyalty points are waiting.” The client remembers they are due for a trim and books that afternoon.

A restaurant with a lunch offer creates a pass that triggers between 11:30 and 14:00. Office workers walking within range see the offer on the lock screen before choosing where to eat. The pass does not interrupt them at 19:00, because the time window is closed.

Why the Lock Screen Matters

The lock screen is the first thing a customer sees when they pick up the phone. A location based notification wallet pass puts your business there at the exact moment the customer is near enough to act. It is not an email that gets read hours later. It is not a push notification from an app the customer may have muted. The pass lives in the wallet, where payment and loyalty cards already sit, and the lock screen gives it a moment of attention without forcing the customer to open anything.

The reminder is useful because it is tied to place, not just time. A customer who is already near your shop is a warmer prospect than one who sees a generic message at home. The phone does the work of remembering. The customer only has to decide whether to walk in.

Setting Up Geofenced Pass Triggers

A geofenced pass trigger fires when a customer’s phone enters or exits a defined area around your business. The pass sits in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, and the lock screen shows your reminder without the customer opening an app. Setting this up correctly means the message appears at the right moment: close enough to act, not so far away that it gets ignored.

Start with the radius. Most wallet pass platforms let you set a geofence from 50 metres to several kilometres. For a cafe, a 100-metre radius around the front door works well. A customer walking from the car park or the train station gets the lock screen loyalty card prompt before they reach the counter. For a car wash, a wider radius of 300 to 500 metres makes more sense. Drivers need time to see the reminder, check the queue, and turn in.

Think about what the customer is doing when the notification arrives. A salon client who booked a haircut three weeks ago may have forgotten the appointment. A geofence of 200 metres around the salon triggers a lock screen message: “Your appointment is today at 2:30. Tap to show your loyalty card.” That is more useful than a generic “We miss you” message. The pass already holds the booking details, so the reminder is specific.

Restaurants can use location based notifications wallet pass triggers for empty tables and slow periods. Set a geofence around nearby office buildings, not just your own front door. If your restaurant is two blocks from a business park, a 400-metre geofence centred on the park catches workers heading to lunch. The lock screen shows a time-limited offer: “Show this pass before 1:30 pm for a free side with any main.” This works because the customer is already moving, and the decision point is minutes away.

Gyms face a different challenge. Members often drive past the gym on the way home but skip the workout. A geofence of 150 metres around the gym entrance only helps people who are already committed. A better trigger is a second geofence around a nearby supermarket or petrol station. When a member stops there after work, the lock screen reminder says: “You’re 5 minutes from the gym. Today’s class starts in 40 minutes.” The pass can also show remaining class credits.

Shops with multiple locations need separate geofences for each branch. A customer who lives near your north-side store should not get a reminder for the south-side branch. Most wallet platforms let you assign passes to specific locations. When the customer enters the north-side geofence, the pass shows that store’s address and opening hours. If they enter the south-side geofence with a pass linked to the north store, the system can either stay silent or show a message like “Your nearest store is 2 km away.”

Test the geofence yourself before you rely on it. Stand at the edge of the radius with the pass installed on your own phone. Walk in and out several times. Check how long the notification takes to appear. Some platforms delay by 30 seconds or more to avoid false triggers from passing traffic. If the delay is too long for a customer walking past a small shop, reduce the radius or adjust the trigger settings.

Finally, set a frequency cap. A customer who works next door to your cafe should not get the same lock screen loyalty card prompt every time they walk past. Most platforms let you limit triggers to once per day or once per week. Use the daily cap for time-sensitive offers and the weekly cap for general reminders. This keeps the pass useful without turning it into noise.

Best Apps for Location Reminders

Most wallet passes sit unused because customers simply forget they exist. Location reminders change that. The right tool triggers your loyalty card, coupon or membership pass on the lock screen exactly when the customer is near your shop. Here are the practical options that work for small businesses.

PassSlot gives you direct control over Apple Wallet and Google Wallet passes with geofence support built in. You set a radius around your address, from 50 metres to several kilometres. When a customer with your pass enters that zone, the pass appears on the lock screen with a notification. A cafe near a train station can set a 200-metre radius so commuters see their coffee loyalty card as they walk past. A car wash can use a wider radius around a shopping centre car park, catching drivers before they leave the area. PassSlot works well if you already have a website or booking system and want to add passes without rebuilding anything.

PassKit is another strong choice for shops that want more than basic reminders. It lets you attach location data to each pass and update it remotely. A salon can set reminders for clients who have not visited in six weeks. When those clients come within a kilometre of the salon, the lock screen shows their loyalty card with a note such as "Your next cut is due". PassKit also tracks how many times a pass appeared on a lock screen, so you can see whether the reminders actually drive visits.

Loopy Loyalty focuses on stamp cards and works well for cafes, juice bars and bakeries. You create a digital stamp card, add your shop location, and the app pushes the card to the lock screen when a customer is nearby. A bakery can set a small radius around the high street entrance. A customer walking from the car park to the shops sees the card with seven of eight stamps filled. That one missing stamp is often enough to trigger a visit. Loopy Loyalty does not require customers to open an app; the pass lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and appears automatically.

FidMe suits restaurants and multi-location businesses. It stores loyalty cards and lets you attach a different reminder to each branch. A restaurant group with three sites can set separate geofences so a customer near the city-centre branch sees that location's offer, not a generic one. This matters when you run different promotions per site or when one branch is busier at lunch and another at dinner.

WalletPasses is a lower-cost option for a single shop. You upload your logo, set the loyalty terms, and define a geofence. The pass appears on the lock screen when a customer crosses the boundary. It lacks the deeper analytics of PassKit, but for a gym or barber shop that just wants a simple reminder, it does the job without a monthly fee per pass.

Whichever app you choose, keep the radius realistic. A 100-metre zone around a city-centre cafe catches people already on your street. A five-kilometre zone around a rural garden centre catches people who are still ten minutes away by car. Test the reminder yourself before telling customers about it, and make sure the lock screen message says something useful, not just the name of your shop.

Apple Wallet Native Options

Apple Wallet includes location alerts built into the pass system. A customer saves a loyalty card or coupon to Wallet, and the phone can show it on the lock screen when they are near your shop. This works through a geofence tied to the pass, not through a separate app. You define up to ten locations per pass, and the phone checks its position in the background.

A cafe can use this for a simple morning prompt. Set the geofence to a 150-metre radius around the front door. A regular customer who walks past on the way to the train station sees the loyalty card slide onto the lock screen without opening anything. The pass shows their current stamp balance. No push notification is sent, so it does not feel like marketing. It feels like the phone remembering the card at the right moment.

A salon can attach a location to a specific offer pass. For example, a “10% off your next cut” pass linked to the salon address. When the customer parks nearby, the lock screen shows the offer with the expiry date. They tap it, the full pass opens, and the barcode is ready at reception. This removes the step of searching through Wallet or a photo album.

Restaurants and gyms benefit from a different pattern. A restaurant can set the geofence wider, around 500 metres, for a lunch menu pass. Office workers walking to lunch see the pass appear. A gym can link a membership card to its building. Members arriving by car see the card on the lock screen as they approach the entrance, so it is ready to scan before they reach the door.

There are practical limits you should know. The phone decides when to show the pass. It uses low-power location checks, so the alert may appear a minute or two after the customer enters the geofence. It also may not appear every single time. Apple balances battery life against frequency. You cannot force the pass to appear instantly or every visit. You can only set the location and radius.

Car washes are a good fit because the trigger moment is clear. A customer saves a wash-club pass. You set the geofence to the forecourt entrance. When they pull in, the pass appears on the lock screen. The staff member scans it through the window. The customer does not need to unlock the phone, find the app, or open an email.

To set this up, you need a pass creation tool that supports the location field. Not all wallet pass builders expose this option. Check for “locations” or “relevant locations” in the pass settings. You enter the address, latitude and longitude, and a radius in metres. You can also add a short lock-screen message like “Show this at the counter” or “Tap to open your card”. Keep the message under 30 characters so it fits on the lock screen.

One caution: do not set the radius too large. A 1 km geofence around a city-centre shop will trigger for people who are not actually visiting. They see the card, ignore it, and may delete the pass. Start with 100 to 200 metres for shops on busy streets. Use a wider radius only for places with large car parks or drive-through lanes.

Apple Wallet location alerts work best when the pass has a clear reason to appear. A loyalty card with a stamp balance, a membership card for entry, or a coupon with a deadline all make sense. A generic “visit us” pass with no balance or offer will be ignored or removed. The lock screen is a small, fast surface. The pass must be useful in the exact moment the customer sees it.

Loyalty Card Automation Ideas

A wallet pass can trigger a reminder when a customer walks near your shop. The phone does the work, so you do not need to send a text or email at the right moment. This is what makes location based notifications wallet pass features useful for repeat business.

Start with a simple arrival reminder. A cafe can set a geofence around the front door. When a regular walks within 50 metres, their lock screen shows the loyalty card with a short note such as “Your next coffee is 50% off today.” The pass is already in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, so one tap opens the barcode. No app download, no searching through emails.

Car washes can use the same idea with a wider radius. Set the reminder to appear when a customer is within one kilometre. The message can say “Show this pass for a free pre-wash with any full wash.” This catches drivers before they choose a competitor on the same road. The geofence loyalty card does not interrupt them at home or at work, only when they are close enough to act.

Salons and barbershops benefit from time-based reminders tied to location. A client who has not booked in three weeks can receive a lock screen loyalty card prompt when they pass the salon. The message might read “Your loyalty stamp card has 6 of 8 visits. Book today to keep your progress.” The reminder is useful because it appears at the exact moment the client is nearby and thinking about their schedule.

Restaurants can automate a lunch-hour nudge. Set the geofence around a business district and limit notifications to weekdays between 11:30 and 13:30. The pass shows “Show this card for a free side with any main before 2pm.” This respects the customer’s time and avoids evening spam. It also fills tables during a quiet period without discounting dinner service.

Gyms can use apple wallet pass locations to reduce no-shows. A member who has not visited in ten days gets a lock screen reminder when they drive within two kilometres of the gym. The message can be factual rather than pushy: “Your membership includes two guest passes this month. Bring a friend today.” The reminder feels like a benefit, not a guilt trip.

Boutiques and gift shops can link the reminder to a new stock event. When a customer who bought last season walks past, the pass can show “New winter range just arrived. Show this card for 10% off today.” The location trigger makes the offer feel timely rather than mass-mailed.

One practical setup tip: keep the reminder text under 60 characters where possible. Lock screens cut off longer messages. Test the pass on your own phone before launch. Walk past the shop from different directions to confirm the trigger fires reliably. Also set a minimum time between reminders, such as once per day, so a customer who works next door does not see the same card every time they step outside.

The goal is not to shout at every passer-by. It is to put the right loyalty card on the lock screen at the moment the customer can actually use it. That is the core value of a geofence loyalty card.

Battery and Privacy Considerations

Location tools on a phone can raise two immediate questions from customers: will this drain my battery, and are you tracking me. Both concerns are fair, and both deserve a straight answer at the counter.

What actually happens on the phone

A wallet pass with a location reminder uses a geofence. The phone checks its position against a saved radius around your shop, such as 80 metres from the front door. This is not constant satellite tracking. The battery cost is small compared to streaming video, using maps for navigation or leaving a bright screen on. A customer walking around town with several passes stored in their wallet is unlikely to notice the difference in daily battery life.

The more useful comparison is this. A customer who forgets their loyalty card and has to search for it at the till wastes their own time. A lock-screen reminder that appears as they approach your cafe or salon saves that step. The tiny background check is the trade-off for the card being visible at the right moment.

You can reduce any concern further by setting a sensible radius. A car wash on a main road might use 150 metres so the reminder appears before the driver passes the entrance. A small salon on a side street might use 50 metres. A tighter radius means the phone does less work and the reminder feels more relevant. It also avoids pinging people who are simply walking past on the other side of the street.

Privacy: what you do and do not see

The pass does not give you a live map of where customers are. The location check happens on the customer's own phone. The phone notices it has entered the geofence and shows the pass on the lock screen. You are not sent an alert saying a specific customer is nearby.

That distinction matters when staff are asked about it. A customer might say, "So you know when I'm near the shop?" The accurate answer is no. The phone knows, and the phone shows the card. You only see the customer when they walk in and present the pass, exactly as you would with a plastic card or a paper stamp card.

This is also why the pass works without the customer opening an app or logging in each time. The permission is stored on the device. If the customer removes the pass from their wallet, the location reminder stops immediately. If they turn off location access for the wallet, the pass still works as a normal card. It just stops appearing automatically.

For a gym or a cafe with regulars, this is a useful point to mention when you introduce the pass. Tell customers they can switch the reminder off and keep the card. That honesty builds trust faster than any promise about "smart" features. A customer who understands the trade-off is more likely to keep the pass, allow the location reminder and actually use it.

One practical step for your team: have a one-line explanation ready. For example, "The reminder runs on your phone, not on our system. You can turn it off any time and the card still works." That covers the battery question and the privacy question in a single sentence.

Common Trigger Failures

A location-based wallet pass only works when the phone knows where it is and when the pass is allowed to speak up. When a customer walks past your salon and nothing appears on the lock screen, the problem is rarely the pass design. It is usually one of a handful of predictable failures in how the location, the phone, or the pass settings interact.

The geofence radius is too small

Many shop owners set a geofence of 50 or 100 metres, assuming the phone will trigger the moment a customer crosses that line. In practice, a small radius combined with a busy street, tall buildings, or a customer walking quickly means the phone may not complete a location check until the person is already inside or past the door. A cafe on a narrow footpath with a 60-metre radius will often miss customers who walk by on the opposite side of the road, especially if the phone is in a pocket and the screen is off.

Set the radius wider than feels natural. For a salon on a high street, 150 to 250 metres gives the phone time to wake up, confirm the location, and push the lock-screen reminder before the customer reaches the next block. For a car wash on a main road, a radius of 300 metres or more works better because drivers pass at speed and need the alert early enough to turn in.

Inside a shopping centre, a gym, or a restaurant with thick walls, GPS signals are weak.

A restaurant inside a mall should not rely on a geofence drawn only around its own tables. If the trigger only works with GPS in the car park, widen the fence or move the centre point closer to the mall entrance.

Background app refresh and location permissions

A wallet pass does not need the shop's own app to be open, but it does need the phone to allow location checks in the background. Customers who set location services to "only while using the app" or who turn off background refresh for Wallet will never see a lock-screen reminder. This is common with loyalty cards added months ago, when the customer granted minimal permissions and forgot.

You cannot fix this from your side, but you can reduce the failure rate. When a customer adds the pass, show a short instruction on the pass itself: "For reminders near our shop, keep Location Services on for Wallet." A gym can add a note on the sign-up sheet or the welcome email. A cafe can print the same line on the bottom of the loyalty card. The more customers enable the right setting at the start, the fewer silent passes you will have later.

The pass is archived or hidden

Phones automatically archive wallet passes that have not been used for a long time. An archived pass will not trigger location alerts. A customer who visited your car wash once six months ago and has not opened Wallet since may have the pass sitting in the archived list without knowing it. The geofence is active, the location is correct, but the phone treats the pass as dormant.

Encourage a small action that keeps the pass visible. A salon can send a seasonal update through the pass, such as a new offer or a changed opening time. A restaurant can update the loyalty points balance after each visit. These updates move the pass back to the active stack and restore the lock-screen trigger for the next visit.

Geofence centre point is wrong

The centre point you choose matters more than the radius. If you place the centre at your shop's front door, half the geofence covers the back of the building, the loading area, or a car park where customers never walk. The useful half is cut short. A cafe on a corner should place the centre point at the busiest approach, not at the till. A gym in a retail park should centre the fence on the car park entrance, not the reception desk.

Walk the area around your shop with the pass on a test phone. Note where the alert appears and where it fails. Move the centre point in small steps until the alert fires reliably on the main approach routes. This is a one-time adjustment that removes most trigger failures without changing the pass design.

Battery saver and low power mode

Low power mode reduces how often the phone checks its location. A customer walking to your salon with 15 percent battery and low power mode switched on may cross the geofence without any alert. The phone delays background location updates to save power, and the lock-screen reminder never appears.

You cannot control the customer's battery, but you can avoid relying on a single trigger. Place a visible sign near the entrance with a QR code that opens the same wallet pass. A customer who missed the lock-screen alert can still add the pass or open the loyalty card at the counter. The location reminder is a helpful nudge, not the only way to connect.

Using Bluetooth Beacons

Bluetooth beacons give you a second way to trigger wallet pass reminders without relying on GPS or a customer’s phone location settings. A beacon is a small, battery-powered device you place near a door, counter, drive-through lane, or specific display. It broadcasts a short-range signal that a phone can detect when the customer walks within a few metres. If the customer has your pass in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet and Bluetooth is on, the lock screen can show your loyalty card or offer at the exact moment they are near the relevant spot.

The practical advantage is precision. GPS geofences work well for a shop front or a car park, but they can be off by ten or twenty metres. A beacon works at shelf level. For a cafe, you can place one beacon at the ordering counter and a second at the pickup area. The first reminds regulars to scan their loyalty card before paying. The second can show a “thank you” message or a prompt to leave a review while they wait for their coffee.

Salons and barbershops can use a beacon at the front desk. A client who booked a cut or colour appointment walks in, and the lock screen shows their loyalty card with the current stamp balance. No need to search through an app or a wallet full of old tickets. The reminder appears before they sit down, so the front desk can scan the pass during check-in.

Car washes and drive-through restaurants benefit from beacons placed at the entrance lane. A customer in the queue sees a lock screen notification with their loyalty pass or a wash-club discount. This works better than a poster or a QR code on a sign, which drivers may not have time to scan.

Gyms can place a beacon just inside the entry turnstile. Members who have a class pass or a guest pass in their wallet see it pop up as they walk in. If you run a small studio, you can place a second beacon outside a specific room to remind members to check in for a class. The reminder is tied to a physical place, not a time, so it catches people who arrive early or late.

A few practical points matter. Beacons need to be mounted at roughly chest height and away from metal shelves or large refrigerators, which can block the signal. You also need to set the broadcast range carefully. A range of one to three metres is usually enough for a counter. A wider range of five to eight metres suits an entrance or a drive-through lane. If two beacons are close together, lower the power on both so the phone does not show two competing notifications.

Bluetooth reminders only work when the customer has Bluetooth enabled and has allowed notifications from your app or wallet pass. You cannot force the lock screen to appear. That is why beacons work best as a supplement to location based notifications wallet pass campaigns, not as a replacement. Use them where the customer is already committed to being in your space, such as at the till, in the queue, or at the check-in desk. In those moments, a well-timed lock screen loyalty card removes friction and makes scanning feel automatic.

Comparing Pass Types and Limits

A wallet pass is not one single format. Apple Wallet and Google Wallet handle different pass types with different rules, and those rules directly affect how location-based notifications behave on a lock screen. A loyalty card, an event ticket, a coupon, and a boarding pass all live in the same app, but they do not trigger alerts in the same way.

For a shop owner planning a geofence loyalty card, the most important distinction is between a store card and a generic pass. A store card is the pass type designed for repeat visits. It can carry a loyalty balance, a member number, a barcode, and a custom design. More importantly, Apple treats store cards as eligible for lock-screen suggestions when the customer is near a saved location. A generic pass with a barcode may still open from the wallet, but it is less likely to appear automatically on the lock screen at the right moment.

Consider a cafe with two locations. The owner wants a customer walking past the north branch to see the loyalty card pop up before they reach the door. If the pass is built as a store card with both branch addresses attached as relevant locations, the phone can show it on the lock screen when the customer enters the geofence radius. If the same loyalty scheme is built as a generic coupon pass, the customer must remember to open the wallet manually. The geofence still exists in the pass file, but the system treats it as less relevant for automatic display.

Event tickets and boarding passes behave differently again. They are time-sensitive rather than location-sensitive in most cases. A concert ticket may appear on the lock screen on the day of the event, even if the customer is far from the venue. A boarding pass appears at the airport, but the trigger is often tied to time and terminal data rather than a simple geofence. A salon or gym owner should not expect an appointment-style pass to behave like a loyalty card. The pass type determines the priority the wallet gives to lock-screen placement.

There are also practical limits on how many passes can compete for the lock screen at once. A phone only shows a small number of suggestions, and the wallet decides based on relevance, time, and location. If a customer has a gym membership card, a coffee loyalty card, and a parking pass all set to trigger near the same shopping strip, only one or two may appear. A car wash owner with a geofence covering a busy road should not assume their pass will always win. The pass needs a tight radius, a clear location name, and a relevant icon to have the best chance.

Another limit is the number of locations attached to one pass. Apple allows multiple relevant locations on a single pass, but each one should be meaningful. A restaurant chain with ten branches can attach all ten addresses to one loyalty card. However, if the geofence radius is too wide, the pass may trigger when the customer is simply driving past on a motorway. A radius of 100 metres is usually enough for a high-street shop. A car wash on a retail park may need 200 metres because customers approach by car. The key is to test the trigger distance in real conditions, not just in the pass builder preview.

Google Wallet has its own limits. Location-based notifications for Google Wallet passes depend on the pass being saved correctly and the user having location permissions enabled for the wallet app. Google also groups passes by issuer, so a customer with three passes from the same cafe brand may see only the most relevant one. This means a salon offering both a loyalty card and a seasonal offer pass should not expect both to appear on the lock screen at the same time. The wallet will prioritise the pass the customer uses most often.

For a shop owner, the practical takeaway is simple. Build repeat-visit schemes as store cards, keep geofence radii tight, attach only real locations, and accept that the lock screen is a competitive space. The pass type is not a technical detail. It is the difference between a reminder that appears when the customer is nearby and a card that stays buried in the wallet until the customer remembers to look for it.

How PassHive handles this

This site is published by the team that builds PassHive, so this section is written from direct experience with the product. The goal is to explain how PassHive applies location-based lock-screen reminders to wallet loyalty cards, and where the limits sit.

PassHive lets a shop, cafe, salon, car wash, restaurant or gym issue its own branded loyalty card that customers save to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. The card carries the shop’s name, colour and logo. It can be a stamp card, such as “buy 9, get the 10th free,” or a points card. Customers join by scanning a QR code at the counter or opening a link. No app download is needed.

When you create a card for a branch, you can attach that branch’s location. Apple Wallet supports up to 10 locations per card, each with a radius of about 200 metres. Google Wallet uses the merchant locations you provide. The phone decides when to show the reminder. PassHive can send the instruction to the wallet, but the operating system controls the timing. A customer walking past your shop on the other side of a busy road may or may not see the lock-screen prompt at the exact moment you would like. That is a platform behaviour, not a PassHive setting.

What PassHive does is make the setup straightforward. You enter the branch address when you design the card. You can preview the card on iPhone and Android for free before paying anything. If a branch moves or closes, you can turn that branch off at any time. Its cards stop working immediately, including the location reminders.

The reminder itself is a lock-screen notification tied to the saved card. It is not a text message and not an email. The customer does not need to open an app. If they have the card in their wallet and their phone allows wallet notifications, the card can appear on the lock screen near the branch. You can combine this with push notifications sent to saved cards, such as “your reward is ready” or a short offer. Google limits push messages to roughly 3 per card per day, so location reminders are a separate and quieter way to stay visible without burning through that allowance.

Plans start at $10 per month for up to 100 branches. For comparison, PassKit charges from $39.50 per month and includes 250 passes before per-pass fees apply. A business with 10,000 customers would pay about $341 per month on PassKit versus $10 on PassHive. Those figures come from the published PassKit rates. PassHive does not charge per card or per customer.

Developers and agencies can also use the public REST API to create cards, add stamps or points, and send messages from their own POS, app or website. API keys are available, and the documentation is at passhive.app/docs.

You can start designing your card free and see how the location fields work on your own phone before going live. Full details are on the PassHive pricing page.

PassHive is a flat monthly plan for the whole business, not a fee per branch. The plan sets the maximum number of active branches you can run: $10 a month for up to 100 branches, $25 for up to 275, $50 for up to 600 and $100 for up to 1,250. Yearly billing gives two months free ($100, $250, $500 or $1,000 a year). A cafe with one branch pays $10 a month in total, whatever the number of cards or customers. That is what "pay for your branches, not your customers" means: the plan size follows how many branches you run, never how many people save your card.