Is there a way to stop Apple Wallet from opening automatically when near a paying terminal.

Hi Jeff,

I will give you a real life example. In the Netherlands, the machines that read the tickets to access the trains are multi device: the same machine reads QR codes, NFC tickets, and NFC devices (i.e., iPhones using wallet). When you buy a long distance ticket, NS, the national train company, does not issue Apple Wallet tickets, only QR codes they sent to your mail. Therefore, when you open the PDF reader or the photo app where you have the QR code so the machine reads it, apple wallet automatically kicks in overriding whatever there is in the iPhone screen before the machine has the time to read the QR code. This behaviour of automatically kicking in apple wallet when a NFC machine is detected cannot be cancelled. It always kicks in. Therefore, it is impossible to pass the barriers to access the train, because the machine cannot thread the QR code. Hope this clarifies.

It doesn’t matter if the company wants to use QR codes. Apple should prevent that its devices perform undesired behaviours. And the apple wallet always kicking in no matter what, without the possibility to cancel this behaviour, is a design flaw. And it’s Apple’s responsibility to fix it.

Why are you continuously defending Apple in this thread? You aren’t an official Apple representative, right? You add little to this conversation.

We are reporting a serious issue. In a perfect world every company would be 100% compatible with Apple (and Google) technologies. But that’s not how the world works. Our iPhones prevent us from using many ticket scanners. And it’s easier for Apple to add a fix for this than requiring many different manufacturers to change their ticket tech.

Companies invest in ticket tech, which generally has to be used for multiple years, before it can be updated.

Maybe they bought the tech before Apple Wallet was a thing.

And though not the most fancy, the QR code approach works for many people. They don’t even need a mobile device. They can print it on paper and take it with them.

And while many people may like Wallet getting opened automagically, I certainly do not. What if I only wanted to use my iPhone’s flash light to view the instructions on the ticket machine and it triggers the Wallet? I prefer actually opening it myself.

Stringray wrote:

Why are you continuously defending Apple in this thread? You aren’t an official Apple representative, right? You add little to this conversation.

This is a user-to-user forum. There are no official Apple representatives who will be replying.

We are reporting a serious issue. In a perfect world every company would be 100% compatible with Apple (and Google) technologies. But that’s not how the world works. Our iPhones prevent us from using many ticket scanners. And it’s easier for Apple to add a fix for this than requiring many different manufacturers to change their ticket tech.

You're "reporting" it to your fellow users. So, don't be surprised if fellow users respond. If you don't like those responses, feel free to ignore them. But trying to dictate how other users should respond will rarely produce the results you'd like.

You are completely missing the point and getting wrong this conversation.

The issue is not to “support older technology” as you claim. The issue is that apple wallet kicks in automatically without possibility to block this behaviour. Period.

This is neither a question about technology, as QR and NFC are not comparable as they are used for different purposes, regardless that in this case they are.

This is neither Apple offering better technology, but Apple impeding that QR codes are used.

And finally, you are again wrong when you say that the “behavior that you object to is a convenience for millions around the world”, for nobody is objecting to that behaviour (which most of us use) but objecting to the fact that the user is incapable to stop that behaviour when desired, as it should be if Apple did this properly.

Please focus.

I am not sure about when you shifted the topic of this thread to a discussion of QR vs. NFC. It is not and never was.

And the issue is not ”Apple, Google, Microsoft, et al don’t support older technology”.

This has nothing to do with QR or with how transportation companies manage their ticketing systems.

It has to do with Apple not giving the option to cancel the automatic kicking in of Apple Wallet when the phone detects an NFC terminal.

Is this clear? So please let’s stay on topic and do not digress with unrelated discussions on technology.

You are not being helpful, and you can save the condescending travel story that doesn’t add any useful information.

This is not about the wonders of Apple Pay. It is about Apple Pay kicking in as soon as the phone detects an NFC terminal, and the impossibility to avoid this from happening. It is not that difficult to understand.

The word “option” is self explanatory. “Option” means it is something you activate or you deactivate at your convenience. It is optional, get it?

For the many people that have no issues with Apple Pay popping up as soon as it gets near an NFC resder, they can have that behaviour activated. For those that in some occasions have trouble with it, they can always go to settings and disable it for as long as they need, and then put it on back again when they see fit. Or not. Or whatever they like.

Why is this so hard to understand?

Option implies optional. You turn it on an off in your phone settings at your convenience.

What is the problem with that? I cannot think of any case in which having this option in your phone is detrimental. Can you?

By the way, adding this option in the phone settings it is something extremely easy to implement in iOS and releasable with the next iOS update. There is no issue at all in modifying billions of devices as you said before. Apple already does that with each new iOS version it releases.

pau_uvieu wrote:

By the way, adding this option in the phone settings it is something extremely easy to implement in iOS and releasable with the next iOS update. There is no issue at all in modifying billions of devices as you said before. Apple already does that with each new iOS version it releases.

It has been my observation that people who say it's "extremely easy" to implement a change in something as complex as iOS usually haven't done a lot of enterprise-level programming.

>>It has been my observation that people who say it's "extremely easy" to implement a change in something as complex as iOS usually haven't done a lot of enterprise-level programming.<<

I have programmed embedded systems for satellites and ground segments at the European Space Agency, so I have done quite a lot of enterprise-level programming, in the order of hundreds of thousands lines of code. Things way more complex than iOS, so your observation does not serve you well in this case.

pau_uvieu wrote:

>>It has been my observation that people who say it's "extremely easy" to implement a change in something as complex as iOS usually haven't done a lot of enterprise-level programming.<<

I have programmed embedded systems for satellites and ground segments at the European Space Agency, so I have done quite a lot of enterprise-level programming, in the order of hundreds of thousands lines of code. Things way more complex than iOS, so your observation does not serve you well in this case.

Perhaps then, it's time for you to go to work for Apple and share your expertise. ;-)

>>Perhaps then, it's time for you to go to work for Apple and share your expertise. ;-)<<

As I said, that’s something extremely easy and Apple can do it on its own. I have way better and more interesting things to do ;-)

There is no human error here other than a design flaw in Apple’s OS.

If you have your QR code in an email, or in a web link, or wherever, and there’s a machine that can read that QR code from your phone, why would you have to print on paper the code? Is that your brilliant solution?

Now the problem is children playing with phones? I’m amazed.

if a child changes the settings and the boarding pass is not popping up the way it always does, it is so easy to fix as to go back to settings and set it back again to the previous behaviour.

If settings on a phone should be failproof for stupidity there would be no settings App to begin with.

And you got it wrong the other way around. The confusion, anger, and frustration does not come from having options in your settings. It comes from not having them and not being able to stop your phone from doing something terribly annoying.

You also don’t seem to really understand what people have to deal with in real life. You think that everybody uses the phone as you do, and that’s not the case. Have you ever gone on a business trip? And have you worked for a company large enough that works with a travel agency, let’s say American Express or Carlson Wagonlit, to book corporate trips? Well guess what, when American Express books your transportation they don’t send you Apple Travel Passes, they send you QR codes. Surprise surprise :-/