A mobile ticket is one the buyer never has to find. It sits in the phone's wallet next to their boarding passes, comes up on the lock screen when they arrive, and updates itself if you move the doors time. This guide covers what a mobile ticket is made of, how it gets onto a phone, what changes when you change the event, and the questions at the door.
Three ways one ticket is delivered
Every paid ticket on tickts is issued three ways at once, and there is nothing to switch on:
- A PDF attached to the confirmation email, for people who like a file and venues that still ask for one.
- An Add to Apple Wallet button on the ticket page, shown on Apple devices.
- An Add to Google Wallet button on the ticket page, which is not limited to Android.
All three carry the same QR code; any of them scans. The buyer reaches the ticket page from the View Your Tickets button in the confirmation email or from the tickts app, and the wallet buttons sit under the QR.
What the pass looks like
The pass shows your organiser name, the event title, the venue and the date, with your accent colour as the pass background. On the Pro plan the "Powered by tickts" line at the foot of the pass can be removed. It is your ticket in the buyer's wallet, not a generic one.
The part that paper cannot do: live updates
Change the venue, the doors time, the date or postpone the event after people have added the pass, and the pass on their phone changes within a few minutes. They get a banner on the lock screen telling them. This is a push from tickts to Apple and to Google, not a refresh the fan has to trigger by opening something, so the person who bought in June and has not looked since still arrives at the right door in September.
Why it is safer as well as easier
- The QR is voided the moment it is admitted, so a screenshot shared on afterwards scans as already used.
- When a buyer transfers a ticket to a friend, the friend gets a new code and the old pass dies, so a ticket cannot be given away and kept.
- If a ticket is listed for resale, its QR is hidden while it is listed and a fresh one is issued to the new buyer.
- Every scan is logged: ticket, phone, result, time.
The buyer who cannot find their ticket
This is the whole support load of mobile ticketing, and it is small. A fan can recover their own tickets at tickts.co.uk/find-my-tickets: they enter the email they booked with, get a six-digit code, and their upcoming tickets appear with a View ticket button for each. No account, no password, no email to you. If a wallet pass ever shows stale details despite an update, removing and re-adding it forces a fresh fetch and clears the cache on Apple's or Google's side.
"Your tickets are at tickts.co.uk/find-my-tickets. Enter the email you booked with, type the code we send you, and tap View ticket. The Add to Wallet button is under the QR code."
At the door
A phone screen scans the same as paper, and better in the dark. The scanner reads the QR from a wallet pass, from the ticket page, or from the PDF on a screen. If someone's battery has died, the printed door list has their name and ticket code; tick them in by hand and the count stays right. If a group of four arrives on one phone, each ticket in the order has its own QR on the ticket page; swipe through them.
Free events and reserve-and-pay
Free tickets are issued the same three ways with the same QR, so a free event still gets a real count at the door. On a reserve-and-pay event, where the buyer pays you directly, the ticket is issued the moment you mark the order paid, and the wallet buttons appear then.
What you do not have to do
- Print anything.
- Post anything, or charge a delivery fee for not posting it.
- Email people when the doors time changes; the pass and a notification do it.
- Buy scanners. Your phone and your team's phones are the scanners.
