Apple is testing a new way for customers to save trade-in offers in the Wallet app, with code in an updated version of its internal Guide app allowing an offer to remain valid for up to 90 days.
The discovery points to a system designed for Apple Store employees to evaluate a customer’s device, generate a trade-in offer, and let the customer save that offer to their iPhone.
Instead of having to complete the upgrade during the same visit, the customer could take the offer with them.
One string in the Guide app tells employees to have customers scan a QR code to add the offer to Apple Wallet. Another says the offer will remain valid for 90 days.
Apple is building the trade-in process into Wallet
The Wallet pass appears to come at the end of a more extensive in-store evaluation.
References in the Guide app cover checking a device’s eligibility, scanning or entering its serial number or IMEI, recording its physical condition, and running Apple Diagnostics.
The system can then retrieve trade-in values from Apple’s trade-in partners and generate a Wallet pass for the offer the customer chooses.
Apple has also added references to a “TradeInKit” framework and server endpoints covering device eligibility, diagnostic sessions, pricing, and Wallet pass creation.
None of that means customers can use the system today. Both the trade-in workflow and the Wallet functionality are controlled by server-side switches, so Apple can keep the features disabled even though the supporting code is already present.
The 90-day window stands out
The most interesting part of the discovery is the length of the offer.
Apple’s current online trade-in process gives customers a much shorter window. A device generally needs to reach Apple within 14 days of the estimate for the quoted value to be guaranteed.
A 90-day Wallet offer would work very differently.
The setup suggests Apple could be preparing for a situation where a customer has their device evaluated in a store, receives a formal offer, and decides to wait before applying it toward another Apple product. The offer would then remain available in Wallet when the customer returns.
That would also make more sense for an in-store experience than an email estimate. An employee could evaluate the phone while the customer is shopping, send the offer directly to Wallet, and leave the customer free to make the purchase later.
The value may not be locked for 90 days
The code doesn’t establish that Apple would guarantee the quoted value for the entire 90-day period.
Apple’s existing trade-in terms allow the final value to change when a device’s condition doesn’t match the original description, when an activation lock remains enabled, or when the device isn’t returned within the required timeframe.
The new system also includes references to device lock states and values supplied by Apple’s third-party trade-in partners.
That leaves an important detail unresolved: whether the 90-day period represents a guaranteed price or simply the period during which the offer remains available.
Apple hasn’t announced the Wallet trade-in feature, and the code is still behind server-side controls. The system could change before Apple enables it, or never make it beyond internal testing.
