Google Pay is adding mobile boarding passes and event tickets

In a move that brings its digital wallet closer in line with Apple’s, Google is adding mobile tickets for travel and entertainment events to Google Pay. The iPhone has offered the ability to store your mobile tickets — called “passes” in Apple’s case — inside the Wallet app for quick access since 2012. Google Pay already lets you do that with credit cards and loyalty cards, but now Android users will find digital boarding passes and scannable tickets inside the app as well. Southwest Airlines actually added the feature to its app a day before Google’s event, which Android Police picked up on.

Google collaborated with Urban Airship “to create streamlined and engaging ticketing and boarding pass experiences.” A number of travel and entertainment brands like Alaska Airlines and Regal Cinemas already utilize Urban Airship’s platform, which allows for “real-time updates (like departure time changes), and personalized one-to-one messaging within the card and through lockscreen notifications.”