Doors and hardware
The ways a pass can be read — camera, desk reader, door reader, your own terminal, HID badge reader — and which page covers each.
A pass needs something to read it. For most businesses that is the phone already in a member of staff's hand. Hardware comes in when you want a tap instead of a scan, a door that opens on its own, or staff badges in the wallet.
The options at a glance#
| You want to | Use | Reads | Read |
|---|---|---|---|
| Scan at a counter, no hardware | The mobile app's camera | The barcode on the pass | Scanning a pass |
| Tap at a desk or till | A USB NFC reader with the Walletap app | NFC passes and physical cards | Connect an NFC reader |
| Open a door for members, unattended | A door reader wired to the lock | NFC passes and physical cards | Door access |
| Read passes on a terminal you already own | Your terminal, given your account's NFC keys | NFC passes | Connect an NFC reader |
| Give staff a door badge in their wallet | HID readers and access badges | HID mobile credentials | Access badges |
Barcode or NFC#
Every pass can carry a barcode, and any camera or barcode scanner can read it. That is the default, and it needs nothing extra.
An NFC pass can also be tapped, like a contactless card. It needs a reader built for wallet passes — Apple's VAS and Google's Smart Tap — holding your account's keys. A reader that accepts Apple Pay or Google Pay does not read wallet passes on that basis alone; the protocols are different. See NFC passes for what a template needs to become tappable.
A physical card — a plastic card with a chip — is read by the same NFC readers. Its chip number becomes the member's credential, so a member can carry a card instead of, or as well as, a phone.
Attended and unattended#
At a desk, a person sees every result. The Walletap app shows who the pass belongs to and why it was refused, and staff can renew or unfreeze on the spot.
At a door, nobody is watching. The reader asks Walletap at every tap, and Walletap answers from the membership's current state and the location's opening hours. A renewal, a freeze or an invalidated pass takes effect on the very next tap, with nothing to sync to the door.
Access badges are a separate product#
Membership passes open doors through Walletap's door readers. Access badges are employee credentials issued through HID and read by HID readers. They have their own template type and their own screens, and they are set up per account.