Apple's WWDC keynote revealed a trio of upgrades to boarding passes for Apple Wallet in iOS 26, with United Airlines seemingly the first to use them.
The presentation of iOS 26 at WWDC in June brought a few new features to the Apple Wallet app. Some of them affected boarding passes, making them more useful to frequent fliers.
On Sunday, a tip to 9to5Mac claims that United Airlines has added the new feature support to its boarding pass experience on iOS 26. This follows a week after a new version of the Apple Wallet boarding pass appeared on Reddit.
United would be the first among a collection of airlines that are expected to add their own support in the coming months. That list includes Air Canada, American Airlines, Delta, JetBlue, Southwest, United Jetstar, Lufthansa, Qantas, and Virgin Australia.
The enhanced boarding pass experience will let users track their flight via a live activity. However, the report's tipster explains that you have to opt in to the live activity within the Wallet, instead of being an automatic addition.
Sharing the flight tracker with others does allow for the other person's iPhone to display a live activity of the flight itself. However, they will not get to see the boarding group nor seat number for the passenger.
The new boarding passes also include the option to view the map of the airport, wherever that functionality is supported. Find My access is also provided, to make it easier to track luggage and to report missing bags.
