---
title: "Gym membership pass check-in with Apple and Google Wallet"
url: https://getstell.com/solutions/fitness
description: "A gym membership pass in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet checks members in with an NFC tap or a QR scan, opens the door, and stays in sync with the membership."
---

# Gym membership pass check-in with Apple and Google Wallet

# Fitness

/ /solutions /solutions/fitness A gym membership pass in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet checks members in with an NFC tap or a QR scan, opens the door, and stays in sync with the membership. /solutions/fitness #check-in #why #door #front-desk #live #evo #faq The fob is the key. A member who forgets it is standing outside the door. Fobs get lost, lent and copied, and replacements have to be posted or handed over. A drawer of active fobs belonging to lapsed members, because access and membership drift apart. A fob can beep at a reader. It cannot tell the member anything. The phone is the one object members reliably bring to the gym. The pass inherits that. Enrollment issues the pass in one tap. Membership begins the moment the member says yes. The pass and the membership record are the same fact, held in sync by the platform. A credential that can also communicate: live details on the pass, push on the lock screen. Passes are created from the member records you already hold, through the portal or over one REST API. Number, status and validity come from the membership itself. A link in the welcome email, a QR code at the desk or a button in your app adds the pass to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet in one tap. The QR code on the pass reads on the scanners you already own from day one. Add NFC readers that support Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap, and the same pass taps, with nothing reissued. Renewals, freezes and cancellations are pushed to the pass as they happen, so check-in always reflects the membership as it is today. Carries an encrypted NFC payload, read over Apple VAS on iPhone and Google Smart Tap on Android. Only a reader holding the matching key can read it, and account binding ties the pass to the member's own account, so a membership cannot be lent out the way a fob could. An NFC reader at the door built to read wallet passes over both VAS and Smart Tap. One reader covers both ecosystems, unattended, at any hour. No payment terminal involved; we spec the reader with you through our hardware partners. Stays put. Our reader partners speak the protocols access-control systems already use, OSDP and Wiegand among them, so your existing door controllers treat a pass read like any other credential. A new member adds the pass from a link or QR code. No fob to post, no pickup, no wait for the mail. When a membership starts, changes, freezes or ends, the pass reflects it and access follows. No drawer of active fobs for lapsed members. The pass gives the club a route to the lock screen when something is worth saying, with no app for the member to install. Key management, handled The encrypted tap works because passes and readers share the right keys. Stell manages the pass side for both Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap, so you configure keys once, not once per wallet. Do we have to replace our access-control system? No. The pattern is new reader, existing protocol, existing controller. Our reader partners cover the protocols access-control systems already speak, OSDP and Wiegand among them, so the door controllers you run treat a pass read like any other credential. What changes is what the reader at the front can read. What happens to members who still carry fobs? Old and new credentials can coexist for as long as the rollout needs. Migrations can run progressively, club by club, with fobs and passes working side by side. No launch-day cliff, no member left outside. Is a wallet pass secure enough to be a door key? It is more secure than the fob it replaces. An RFID fob can be lost, lent or copied. A wallet pass is stored on the member's device and read over an encrypted NFC protocol, Apple VAS or Google Smart Tap, so only a reader holding the matching key can read it. With account binding, available for NFC passes, the pass is also bound to the member's own account and cannot be shared, so a membership cannot be lent out the way a fob could. Do members need your app, or ours? Neither. The pass lives in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet, which ship on the phone. Members add it in one tap and present it the way they already present their phone to pay. If your club has a booking app, the pass can link straight into it, and on iPhone can offer the install directly from the pass. What if a location has no NFC reader at the desk? A pass can carry a QR barcode as well, so any scanner identifies the member. NFC tap and barcode scan are equal citizens of the same pass; use whichever each location's hardware already speaks. And adding tap at a desk is a small step: standalone readers read passes without any payment terminal, and we can help you pick one. Door · reader Unlocked Membership Active Credential Wallet pass The membership card was always a key. Move it to the one place members never forget to bring. A membership pass in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet checks the member in with a tap or a scan, opens the door, and stays in sync with the membership itself. /contact #door Membership check-in Tap or scan, and the member is in. A gym membership pass lives in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet. At check-in the member holds their phone to an NFC reader at the door or desk, or shows the QR code on the pass to a scanner. Both identify the same membership, staffed or unattended, with no app to open. How a gym issues membership passes Step NFC tap needs Apple’s VAS entitlement on iPhone, which we prepare with you, and the QR route needs none of it. More on the pass itself in membership passes , and on the tap in how NFC identification works . The hard case In fitness, the card is the key. A member who forgets their key-fob isn't missing out on points, they are standing outside the door. In a digital-first club with no reception desk, the credential has to work every time, for everyone, unattended. If passes can carry that, the easier jobs are comfortably within reach. From pocket to lock A pass on its own does not open anything. The interesting engineering is the chain from pocket to lock, and every link is standard equipment. The pass adapts to your infrastructure, not the other way around. Front desk and counter The same pass identifies the member anywhere. Check-in, personal-training sessions, the shake bar: one pass, two equal ways to read it. Lifecycle, not generation Issuing passes is a batch job. Keeping them correct is a platform. Memberships start, change, freeze and end every day. The pass in the wallet reflects all of it, managed from the portal or over one REST API. Customer story EVO moved the key to the wallet. EVO, a Nordic operator running 132 clubs across Norway and the DACH region, became the first major Nordic fitness chain to replace physical key-fobs with membership passes in Apple Wallet and Google Wallet. Around 140,000 members were in scope, migrated progressively with no hard cutover, on the access-control system EVO already had. Read the full EVO story How the tap works in detail: NFC identification, explained Gym membership pass check-in with Apple and Google Wallet The door Live membership Connect the member system Deliver it at sign-up Check members in Keep it current The reader The access system One-tap enrollment Live membership state Push to the lock screen Stell for fitness Book a fitness demo See how the door works With fobs and plastic With a wallet pass The member holds their phone to the reader, the same gesture as paying. Apple VAS and Google Smart Tap hand over the membership over an encrypted channel, with nothing to open or show. Any pass can carry a barcode that any scanner reads, including handhelds. The same membership, the same speed, on the hardware each location already owns. Set a geofence on the club and the pass surfaces on the lock screen as the member walks in, ready to scan. Questions from operators What fitness teams ask first. Fitness demo See it work on a real door. Forty-five minutes with a specialist: your access system, your clubs, your pass design. We'll walk the chain from pocket to lock.