Google Wallet Nearby Notifications: How to Trigger Pass Alerts When Customers Walk In

The most valuable moment to reach a customer is when they are physically near your business. Google Wallet nearby notifications make this possible without an app, without a beacon installation and without asking the customer to do anything beyond saving your pass to their wallet. When a pass holder enters a geofenced area you define — a shop, a café, a venue or a restaurant — Google Wallet automatically fires a notification surfacing the pass on their lock screen. This guide explains how the feature works, how to configure it and how to use it effectively.

What Google announced at Google I/O 2025

Google I/O 2025 confirmed that geofence-triggered wallet notifications — previously in limited testing — were rolling out broadly to Android users throughout late 2025. The feature works on Android 10 and above and does not require any special hardware. Geofencing is handled entirely by Google's location services infrastructure; the pass issuer defines the trigger zones through the Google Wallet REST API and Google handles detection and notification delivery.

The rollout completed by December 2025, making geofenced notifications available to effectively all active Android users who have Google Wallet installed.

How it works technically

Location-based notifications are configured through the locations array on any Google Wallet pass object. Each entry in the array defines a geofence:

• latitude — decimal degrees, WGS84.
• longitude — decimal degrees, WGS84.
• altitude — optional, in metres. Useful for multi-storey venues.
• radius — optional integer in metres. Defaults to 150m; minimum 10m; maximum 1,000m.

When a pass holder's device detects that they have entered the radius around a configured coordinate, Google Wallet surfaces the pass as a lock screen notification. The notification shows the pass thumbnail, the pass name and the first line of relevant pass data. No custom notification text is injected — the pass's own content is what the user sees.

You add locations to a pass object either at creation time (in the initial POST to the Wallet API) or via a PATCH request to update an existing pass. Up to ten location entries are supported per pass object. If your business has multiple branches, you can define a geofence for each location on a single loyalty card pass, so the notification fires wherever the holder is nearest one of your outlets.

Use cases

Café loyalty cards

A customer who has a coffee stamp card in their wallet walks past your café on their lunch break. As they enter the 100m radius around the café entrance, Google Wallet surfaces the loyalty card with their current stamp balance visible. They see they are two stamps from a free coffee. The friction to acting on that reminder is zero — the pass is already on their lock screen. Conversion from proximity reminder to purchase is significantly higher than any other channel at that moment.

Retail coupons

A fashion retailer issues a 10% off coupon as a Google Wallet pass. The pass carries a geofence centred on each of its flagship store entrances. When a holder walks within 80m of any store, the coupon appears on their lock screen. There is no push campaign to manage, no SMS cost per message and no email deliverability issue — the notification is triggered by physical proximity to the point of purchase.

Event venues

An event ticket pass carries a geofence set to 500m around the venue entrance. Forty minutes before the doors open, a holder approaching the venue sees their ticket surface automatically. They tap the notification, open the pass and have the QR code ready at the gate without searching through their wallet. For venues processing thousands of attendees, reducing the time each person spends at the gate has a material operational benefit.

Hospitality and restaurants

A restaurant loyalty programme can trigger a notification as a regular diner walks through the nearby street. The notification surfaces their points balance and any active reward — a free dessert, a glass of wine on the house. Timed well, it is the most contextually relevant marketing message the restaurant can deliver.

Apple Wallet's equivalent: location-based relevance

Apple Wallet has supported location-based pass relevance since iOS 6 through thelocations array in pass.json. The mechanism is similar: each entry takes a latitude, longitude, altitude and an optional relevantText string that customises the lock screen notification message.

The key difference is that Apple allows you to set custom notification text per location via relevantText, whereas Google Wallet surfaces the pass's own content. Apple also supports up to 10 locations per pass; Google Wallet matches this limit.

Both platforms handle the geofence detection natively — there is no SDK to install on the user's device and no beacon hardware required. You define the coordinates in the pass data; the platform handles the rest. For issuers using Issuepass, the same location array configuration applies to both Apple and Google passes simultaneously.

Best practices for geofenced notifications

Choose the right radius

The radius you choose determines how far from your location the notification fires. A 50m radius is appropriate for a single-entrance shop on a high street — it means the notification fires roughly when the holder is steps away from the door. A 200m radius works better for a large shopping centre or a venue accessible from multiple directions, giving the holder enough time to act on the notification before they pass by.

Avoid setting very large radii — 500m or more — for retail or hospitality use cases. A notification that fires when someone is ten minutes' walk away is less compelling than one that fires as they round the corner.

Write pass content with proximity in mind

Because the notification shows the pass's own primary field content, your pass design should carry information that makes sense as a proximity prompt. “8 of 10 stamps collected” works well. A generic “Loyalty Card” label with no balance visible does not create the same pull.

Respect frequency limits

Google Wallet applies rate limiting to nearby notifications to prevent a holder from being bombarded every time they walk past your location. Design your use case assuming that the notification will fire once per visit, not on every pass of the building. This is the right frequency — daily commuters who walk past your café every morning should not receive a notification every day.

How Issuepass configures this for you

In the Issuepass template editor, you add locations directly to any pass template. Enter the address or drop a pin on the map, set the radius and we handle the rest — writing the correct locations array to both the Google Wallet object and the Apple Walletpass.json for every pass issued from that template.

For businesses with multiple branches, you can define locations at the template level (covering all passes issued from that template) or at the individual pass level through the API for location-specific passes.

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