Wallet Libre

Wallet Libre turns a card you already carry into a pass in Apple Wallet. Photograph the barcode, check the number it read, and add it. That is the whole flow — everything after it is optional. WHY IT EXISTS Most library cards use Codabar, a barcode format Apple Wallet has no support for. Wallet Libre draws the bars itself, at the same width they are printed on the card, so the pass scans where the plastic did. QR, Code 128, PDF417 and Aztec are handled natively when your card carries one. Some formats cannot be rebuilt into a pass at all — EAN, UPC, Code 39, Code 93 and ITF among them — and the app tells you so when it reads one, rather than quietly shipping a barcode that will not scan. LET IT FILL IN THE REST Ask it to, and Wallet Libre reads the photo of your card and suggests a title, colors drawn from the card itself, and the issuer's logo. Nothing is applied without you seeing it first, and you can skip the whole step and type the details yourself. IT SHOWS UP WHERE YOU USE IT Give a pass locations and Apple Wallet offers it on your lock screen when you arrive — no app to open, nothing to search for. Wallet Libre finds the places for you: from a built-in directory of US public libraries that needs no network round trip, or from a map search anywhere else. You choose which ones stay. Apple Wallet carries up to ten per pass, and one tap picks the ten nearest you. MAKE IT LOOK LIKE YOUR CARD Choose the colors, or take them from the photo. Use a letter or an emoji where there is no logo to find. Add the fields printed on your own card — a member number, a join date, an expiry. PRIVACY There is no account and no sign-in, and there is nothing to create. Apple requires every pass to be signed with a registered developer certificate, and a certificate cannot ship inside an app. So the card's details go to the signing server, are signed, and are discarded before the response is sent. They are never stored and never logged. The optional fill is the only other thing that leaves your iPhone: when you ask for it, the photo of your card and the text read from it are sent to be interpreted, and are not kept afterwards. Tap the other button and nothing is ever sent anywhere.