Save vaccination certificate on Apple Watch and iPhone: This is how it works

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The digital vaccination card has been available since mid-June 2021. It usually comes in the form of a QR code that is stored in the Corona warning or CovPass app and that you show for reading when you are checking your trip, for example. Especially Apple users with iPhone and Apple Watch would prefer to use the “wallet” built into the operating system. This is not actually provided for in the EU vaccination certificate. But now a computer scientist has found a way.

What are the advantages of the Apple Wallet?

The wallet is one that Apple has integrated into the iOS and watchOS operating systems digital wallet. All kinds of cards can be collected there: boarding passes for the plane, membership cards, admission and virtual credit cards. The advantage: the wallet can be called up quickly at any time. This is faster on the iPhone than opening the Corona warning app. However, the digital wallet only has a real advantage for owners of an Apple Watch: Because neither Corona Warning nor CovPass apps run on the watch.

How to get the vaccination certificate on Apple Watch & Co.

The Hanoverian computer science student Marvin Sextro without further ado programmed a solution for fans of the Apple Wallet, with the update from June 30, 2021, the process is even easier. This is how you get the vaccination certificate on Apple Watch and iPhone in the Apple Wallet – and Android users can even use a few tricks to install it on smartwatches from other manufacturers:

1. Take a picture of the vaccination certificate: Call up the website directly on your smartphone covidpass.marvinsextro.de on. If you have not received the vaccination certificate digitally as a PDF, tap on “Start Camera” and align the camera window in the browser so that it is filled with the QR code of the certificate. If you have received a vaccination certificate from your vaccination center as a download as a PDF, this can be uploaded directly via the “Open File” menu

2. Choose color: Decide on a background color in front of which the certificate should appear. This has no influence on the function, but the color green goes well with the idea of the “Green Cerfiticate”, under which the EU developed the vaccination certificate.

3. Install the certificate in the wallet: Get the wallet file. The card is displayed, with a tap on “Add” you can then install it in the Apple Wallet – it will automatically land on a paired Apple Watch. On Android smartphones, the file with the name “Covid.pkpass” is installed in the internal download folder, you must then use a wallet app such as PassHolder import and transfer to the smartwatch.

4. Show vaccination certificate: If you want to prove your vaccination status in the future, press the lower side button on the Apple Watch twice or the power button on the iPhone. Then scroll to the card with the vaccination certificate.

Covidpass generator for the Apple Wallet — Via the website covidpass.marvinsextro.de the vaccination certificate can be converted into a file for the Apple Wallet in no time at all.

How secure is the wallet integration?

Like Mobiflip reported, in a first version of the wallet service, the certificate was actually transferred briefly to the server in encrypted form. In the meantime, however, Marvin Sextro has adapted the procedure: As in the Data protection read, the data is processed locally in the browser, the signing of the wallet, as required by Apple, only takes place on the basis of individual hash values for each signature. This procedure should not violate the EU data protection concept – unlike in the original version.

Alternative: save the photo on the device

If all you want is to have the vaccination certificate on the Apple Watch in case the worst comes to the worst, this can also be done more easily: Use the Watch app to set up a clock face with the QR code as a photo. With a side swipe of your finger you can quickly switch to the vaccination certificate dial. In the test, the validation worked in the same way as when the Corona warning app was scanned, despite the time being displayed. On the iPhone, simply save the certificate in the photo app and mark it as a “favorite”.

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What about Android users?

There are numerous apps for Android – such as the free one PassAndroid Passbook Wallet or PassHolder (ad-financed, with optional support for smartwatches from Samsung, Garmin, Fitbit and Google Wear smartwatches) – which also read in wallet files according to the iPhone standard. In the practical test, these showed the generated Apple wallet file “Covid.pkpass” without any problems, and synchronization with the smartwatch should also be possible via the PassHolder app. Alternatively, it is also possible to save a photo of the vaccination certificate on the device – for example in the event that there are problems with the Corona warning app. The display as an image file should also work with many smartwatches, but we have not tested it yet. Devices with a round display such as the Galaxy Watch 3 and Huawei Watch 3 are – unlike the Apple Watch – not ideally suited for displaying the square QR code. If necessary, there is still an alternative: the EU vaccination certificate as a printout on paper.

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