You have bought four tickets for a gig and need to get them to three friends. In the paper ticket era, this meant handing over physical tickets at the pub beforehand. With digital tickets, the process varies depending on the platform, the event, and the type of ticket. Some platforms make sharing straightforward. Others make it deliberately difficult to prevent resale. Here is how to navigate the options.
Built-in transfer features
Many ticketing platforms include a ticket transfer feature that lets you send individual tickets to other people. This is the cleanest and most secure way to share tickets with friends.
The typical process works like this: you open your order in the ticketing app or website, select the ticket you want to transfer, enter your friend's email address or phone number, and confirm the transfer. Your friend receives a notification or email with instructions to claim the ticket, which then appears in their own account or app.
Once transferred, the ticket is removed from your account and belongs to your friend. They can access it independently, present it at the venue under their own name, and do not need you to be present. This is particularly useful if your group is arriving at different times or entering through different gates.
The transfer feature also handles the security side properly. The original QR code linked to your account is deactivated, and a new one is generated for your friend's account. This means you cannot accidentally scan the same ticket twice, and there is no risk of duplicate entries.
Sharing via wallet passes
If your tickets are stored in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet, sharing depends on the platform's policies. Some wallet passes can be shared using the phone's built-in sharing features. Others are locked to the account that originally saved them.
Apple Wallet supports sharing passes via AirDrop, Messages, or email if the pass issuer has enabled sharing. The recipient receives a .pkpass file that they can add to their own Wallet. Google Wallet has similar sharing capabilities for eligible passes.
However, many event ticketing platforms intentionally disable pass sharing to maintain control over transfers. If you try to share a wallet pass and it does not work, the platform has likely restricted this feature. You will need to use the platform's own transfer mechanism instead.
The screenshot approach
For tickets with static QR codes, some people share by screenshotting the QR code and sending it via WhatsApp, iMessage, or another messaging app. This works in the sense that the QR code will scan, but it comes with significant risks.
The biggest risk is that anyone with the screenshot can scan the code. If you send a screenshot to a group chat, everyone in that chat has a copy of your ticket. The first person to scan it gets in, and everyone else is turned away. There is no way to control who uses the ticket once the screenshot is out in the wild.
There is also no audit trail. If something goes wrong, the ticketing platform has no record of who you intended to give the ticket to. With a proper transfer, the platform records the new ticket holder's details, making disputes easier to resolve.
If you do share via screenshot, only send each ticket to one person, and make sure they understand they should not forward it to anyone else. But wherever possible, use the platform's official transfer feature instead.
Group entry with one phone
If the platform does not support transfers, or if your group is arriving together, you can enter as a group from one phone. Most venues allow one person to present multiple tickets. You show your first ticket, it gets scanned, then you swipe to the next ticket in the app and it gets scanned for your friend walking in behind you.
This works well but has an obvious limitation: the ticket holder needs to be present and at the front of the group for every entry. If one friend arrives late, they cannot get in without the phone that holds their ticket. For festivals with multiple stages or events with re-entry, this can be inconvenient.
Some venues require the lead booker to present photo ID matching the name on the order. Check the event's entry requirements in advance so you know whether ID will be needed and whose name the booking is under.
PDF tickets and email forwarding
If your tickets arrived as PDF attachments in an email, sharing is as simple as forwarding the email or sending the PDF file. Each ticket in the PDF should have its own unique QR code or barcode, so you can forward individual pages to different friends.
The same risks apply as with screenshots: once the PDF is out of your hands, you cannot control who uses it. But for trusted friends attending a specific event, forwarding a PDF is a practical and widely used solution.
What to avoid
Never share tickets publicly, such as posting a screenshot on social media or in a large group chat. Even a momentary post can be captured by someone and used before your intended recipient. Bots have been known to scrape ticket QR codes from social media posts.
Be cautious about sharing with people you do not trust. Once a digital ticket is shared, the first person to scan it gets entry. There is no way to "unsend" a shared QR code unless the platform offers a transfer feature with a recall option.
If you are managing tickets for a family group, keep all tickets on one device until you are ready to enter. This avoids confusion about who has which ticket and ensures everything is in one place when you reach the scanner.
Digital ticket sharing does not need to be complicated. Use the platform's transfer feature where available, keep screenshots limited to trusted individuals, and have a plan for how your group will enter the venue. A quick conversation with your friends before the event about who has which ticket prevents the scramble at the door.