WeWork wants to have people access buildings using Apple Wallet Office Keys

Wework Office Key Wallet (Image credit: MacRumors)

What you need to know

WeWork appears to be working on adding Apple Wallet support to allow people to use an iOS 15 feature to unlock offices.
The iOS 15 Office Key feature would allow doors to be unlocked even when a device is powered off.
There is no timeline for when any of this will be available.

WeWork is planning to allow people to access its buildings and offices using their iPhone or Apple Watch, according to a new report. The outfit is thought to be working on Apple Wallet Office Key support that would allow entry to be gained via a tap of an iPhone or Apple Watch.

The news comes after MacRumors reportedly found references in the WeWork app's code. One example is text that reads "add to wallet button tapped," something that would suggest that WeWork plans to use the Office Key feature that was introduced as part of iOS 15.

The code that we located reads "add to wallet button tapped," suggesting that a future version of the WeWork app is going to integrate with Apple Wallet using the Office Key feature. Office Key support would allow users to use their Apple Watch to gain access to WeWork locations, and it would not require users to have the "Background Location" permission turned on for the WeWork app.

While it does appear that WeWork is planning new device-based access, there is no timeline for when that would be a feature rolled out to users and offices. As MacRumors notes, the Office Key feature is already being used by some businesses with employees able to add their passes to the Wallet app on their own devices.

Such Office Key passes would work even when the iPhone or iPad is powered off and the feature could prove to be one of the best Apple Watch additions in some time. The feature could be similar to Apple Pay Express Transit in the way it has the potential to transform how people behave.

Oliver Haslam has written about Apple and the wider technology business for more than a decade with bylines on How-To Geek, PC Mag, iDownloadBlog, and many more. He has also been published in print for Macworld, including cover stories. At iMore, Oliver is involved in daily news coverage and, not being short of opinions, has been known to 'explain' those thoughts in more detail, too.

Having grown up using PCs and spending far too much money on graphics card and flashy RAM, Oliver switched to the Mac with a G5 iMac and hasn't looked back. Since then he's seen the growth of the smartphone world, backed by iPhone, and new product categories come and go. Current expertise includes iOS, macOS, streaming services, and pretty much anything that has a battery or plugs into a wall. Oliver also covers mobile gaming for iMore, with Apple Arcade a particular focus. He's been gaming since the Atari 2600 days and still struggles to comprehend the fact he can play console quality titles on his pocket computer.