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Wallet member cards (Apple & Google)

Members can carry their member card in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, next to their bus pass and their coffee card — the same QR code the desk scans today, on the lock screen.

What it is

One card per adult, because the code is per adult: a household with two grown-ups gets two cards, exactly as the printed member cards do. Volunteers get the same card — the desk identity is the same either way.

The card shows:

• your library's name, logo and brand colour (the ones from Settings → Branding);
• the member's name;
• Valid through — the last day their membership is good for;
• their membership type;
• the QR code, with the code printed underneath for the days a screen won't scan.

On the back: your contact email, a link to the member portal, and a line about renewals.

Nothing else. No address, no children, no balance — a wallet card shows no more than a volunteer sees when they scan someone in.

There is nothing to set up

No setting, no account to create, no certificate to upload. ToyHive holds the Apple and Google credentials for the whole platform, so wallet cards are simply on for your library.

Members see Add to Apple Wallet and Save to Google Wallet under the QR code in their portal ("My QR"), and the same two links ride along on the welcome and renewal emails so a new member can add the card from the phone the email arrived on. If a badge is missing, that platform isn't set up on our side yet — nothing for you to do, and it appears on its own when it is.

If your desk scanner can't read QR codes

Most scanners can. A modern 2D imager reads a QR code as easily as a phone camera does, and if that's your desk there is nothing to do here — leave the setting off and members keep the QR code they already have. How do I know? Point your scanner at any QR code. If it reads it, you're done. If it won't — typically an older laser scanner, the kind that shows a red line — tick Our desk scanner only reads 1D barcodes under Settings → Toys.

Every member card, printed and in the portal, then gains a Code 128 barcode under the QR, with the member's code printed under it as usual. Wallet passes are the exception: a pass can only show one code — Apple and Google both allow exactly one — so a wallet pass carries the barcode instead of the QR. Nothing about the code itself changes: it is the same eight characters, so cards added before you turned this on still scan and still work by typing.

Google cards already saved to a phone update themselves within a minute or two of you changing the setting. An Apple pass keeps whichever code it was created with until the member re-adds it from their portal, the same as the "valid through" date below.

One thing to know before relying on it: a 1D-only scanner is usually a laser, and a laser cannot read a phone screen at all — only paper, whichever code is on the screen. If that is your desk, the printed member card is the one to rely on; a member showing their phone will need you to scan it with a phone camera or type their code.

Renewals, and the one wrinkle

The QR code doesn't change on its own, so a card added once keeps working at the desk — including after a renewal, and including for a lapsed member who rejoins.

The only thing that can go stale is the Valid through date:

• Google cards update themselves. Renew a membership — at the desk, through the portal, or automatically — and the card in the member's phone catches up within a minute or two. A membership that ends is greyed out, rather than left showing a date that has passed.
• Apple cards don't, not in this version. The card stays valid and scannable, but its date is the date it was added. The back of the card says so and points at the portal, where re-adding it takes a tap.

A closure that extends everyone's membership moves every date at once — Google cards follow that too.

A lost or shared card

If a member loses their card or phone, or their code has been shared, open their household's People tab, press Edit on the adult and choose Replace QR code. The old code stops working at the desk immediately — on the printed card and on any wallet card carrying it — and the new code appears so you can print a fresh card. A Google Wallet card picks up the new code within a minute or two; an Apple Wallet card keeps the old, now-dead code until the member adds it again from their portal.

Removing an adult from a household retires their code the same way.

At the desk

Nothing changes. Scan the phone the way you scan the portal's QR code today, and if a screen is cracked or too dim, type in the code printed under it.

If you volunteer here AND borrow here

Your own member card lives in the member portal, not in the staff app. Use Go to member portal at the bottom of the sidebar (Portal on a phone) — it appears whenever your household borrows from this library, and takes you to your QR code, wallet badges, loans and balance. Coming back is the same link in reverse.

If you are helping someone else and using View as, the portal follows them too: you see their card and their loans, with the same yellow "view only" banner, and nothing can be changed while you are looking through their eyes.