How to Manage Tickets, Gift Cards, and More with Passbook

Passbook is a brand new app in iOS 6 that makes managing your event tickets, gift cards, coupons, loyalty cards, and more super easy. Here's how it works in iOS 6.

How to Add, View, and Use Passes

When you update to iOS 6, you'll see a new icon on your home screen for Passbook. Tap on that to open your list of passes. When you first start, you won't have any, but you'll be able to head to the App Store and buy some if you so desire. If you come upon anything that's compatible with Passbook—say, in mobile Safari—you'll be prompted to add it to Passbook right then and there.

Each card in Passbook is designed to show you all the information you could need at any point in time. Airline tickets have your flight number, your gate, the departure time, and more. Gift cards show your current balance, coupons show the expiration date, and nearly all passes have a scannable bar code so you don't need to worry about bringing along your paper tickets. To delete a card, just press the info button in the lower right-hand corner, and tap the trash can icon.

Get Notifications for Passes As You Need Them

When you bring up a pass, you can tap the info button in the lower right-hand corner to edit its preferences. Each card has two settings: First is Automatic Updates, which allows Passbook to update your gift card balance, airline gate changes, and other information. The second preference is Show On Lock Screen, which will give you notifications when it's time to use that card. If it's an airline or event ticket, for example, it'll send you a notification based on the time, and if it's a gift card or coupon, it'll send you a notification based on your location (i.e., if you walk into a Starbucks, it'll notify you that you have a Starbucks gift card). You can edit Passbook's notification settings under Settings > Notifications, as you can with any other app. Some passes may even integrate with the Reminders and Calendar apps as well.

What Services Support Passbook?

As of this morning, Passbook currently supports Fandango, Live Nation, Lufthansa, MLB.com At Bat, Sephora to Go, Ticketmaster, and Walgreens. We've have seen a number of other companies in demonstrations of Passbook, leading us to believe they'll soon be partners as well—particularly Delta, Starwood Hotels, Starbucks, Apple Stores, and more. To see more, just open up Passbook and hit the "App Store" button to see what's available!