Cupertino / Worldwide – August 31, 2025: Promotional notifications are a new feature in the Wallet app of the next iOS release, version 26, Apple has finally introduced a feature allowing users to turn off the promotional notifications–giving them control over unwanted ads in an otherwise default utility at Apple.
The Scandal That brought the Change.
In March of this year, Apple Wallet also pushed out some notifications on behalf of the F1: The Movie, which advertised a ticket deal but elicited a mass user backlash. It was not the offer, but the location–the Wallet application, an essential payment utility, boarding passes, transit cards, IDs, tickets, etc. Customers reported that it was impossible to switch off all Wallet alerts, as it is useful to receive important notifications.
What iOS 26 comes with The Offers and Promotions Toggle.
Apple added a new control: Offers and Promotions in the iOS 26 beta. This toggle is on default and is found in the notification settings at Wallet and can be disabled to silence only promotional alerts without silencing transaction and travel notifications.
To disable it, users simply:
Open the Wallet app
Tap the three-dot menu
Choose Notifications
Toggle off Offers & Promotions
Why This Matters for Users and UX
The Wallet app is trusted to provide sensitive financial and identity operations to the users. The appearance of ad content there broke the high-quality, commercial-free experience that the iPhone owners are used to. The decision by Apple to deploy an opt-out toggle (instead of an opt-in) is a move toward maintaining ad-supported income generation in the game, versus an ability to reclaim control.
However, critics claim that Apple ought to have done it as optional or at least not have used Wallet to do advertisements considering that Apple has had a history of not allowing system applications to be used to push promotions unless strictly requested by a user.
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The Broader iOS 26 Wallet Enhancements
The toggle is not the only one among numerous new updates to Wallet in iOS 26. Interesting additions are:
Live and enhanced boarding passes with airport maps and baggage tracking through Find My making the pass a traveling assistant.
Passport support Support U.S. passports to be used at TSA checkpoints or apps or in person.
Apple Intelligence-powered order tracking, which is able to scan your email inbox to create consolidated shipping notifications through AI.
Full card storage (where users can store full card numbers and card expiration dates (not just masked identifiers).
Installment payments and in-store rewards will increase the range of Apple Pay through partners, such as Affirm.
These characteristics project the desire by Apple to make Wallet a holistic, utility-based identity and financial center rather than a passbook.
What Users Are Saying
The reaction to the toggle is ambivalent. Users on Reddit expressed a lot of relief and frustration at being compelled to have ads unless they actively turned them off:
This was a sick money grabber….
The notification of offers and promotions must be opt in and not opt out.
These sentiments indicate a wider concern about Apple mixing up major functions with monetization functions.
What’s Coming Next
The general release of iOS 26 will be in September and with the launch of the new iPhone. All users should have the toggle at the time.
The user behavior can be the wildcard that many persons do not tend to turn off the toggle and that, in this way, Apple and partners can keep reaching users through Wallet.
The ethical and regulatory questioning will probably continue to exist as this highlights one of the conflicts between platform monetization and expectations of user privacy.
