Apple Adds NameDrop-Like Pass-Sharing Feature To Latest iOS 17.2 Beta That Presages Similar Accessibility Gains

MacRumors’ Joe Rossignol reported earlier today about a new feature added by Apple to the latest iOS 17.2 beta which allows iPhone users to “quickly share boarding passes, movie tickets, and other Wallet app passes with another iPhone user.” The feature bears a strong resemblance to the existing NameDrop functionality new to iOS 17.

As Rossignol explains, the new feature works by opening the Wallet app and tapping the pass a person wants to share. Holding one’s iPhone atop of another will then surface a Share button on the sharer’s phone, and tapping said control will then send the pass to the recipient. Also like NameDrop, this new pass-sharing feature is built atop of AirDrop technologies. Both devices must be running this latest version of iOS.

Rumor mill stories are few and far between for this column, coverage-wise. My motivation for covering this particular one lies in a piece I posted last week about why the recent scare-mongering by local police departments across the country, who’ve taken to Facebook and other social media to mistakenly inform the public about how “dangerous” NameDrop is because sensitive information is transmitted from phone to phone. As I wrote, this recent kerfuffle predictably fails to take into account the true benefits NameDrop can have as a de-facto accessibility feature. To wit, holding one’s iPhone in close proximity of another to share contact details is infinitely more accessible for many disabled people—myself included—than embarking on what’s essentially a high-tech archeological dig in the system’s Contacts app or my personal favorite App Store alternative in Flexibits’ Cardhop. To ward people off with misinformation causes collateral damage these cops aren’t considering: NameDrop is an accessible way to share information.

So it goes with this purported new “PassDrop” tool. Its accessibility advantages are exactly the same as NameDrop insofar as sharing passes by joining phones together is more accessible than manually doing so.

According to Rossignol, Apple explains the feature in its release notes as an “AirDrop improvement [which includes] expanded contact sharing options and the ability to share boarding passes, movie tickets, and other eligible passes by bringing two iPhones together.” However unstated by the company, what this feature also represents is yet another in the laundry list of features ostensibly meant to go mainstream that happen to masquerade as bonafide accessibility tools for those who need them.

iOS 17.2, widely reported to be in the final stages of development and shipping imminently, includes a slew of other features. They include the much-anticipated Journal app, spatial video recording on iPhone 15 Pro models, improvements to the Messages and Weather apps, and more.