The Must Read Card

Your membership, in Apple Wallet

Every reader with a Must Read account has a card. It sits in Apple Wallet next to your travel passes and store cards, it carries your member number, and it keeps itself current as you read. It is free, and there is nothing to activate.

What is on it

  • Your name and the month you joined. The plain facts of membership.
  • Your member number. Eight characters, yours alone, printed under the code so you can read it out loud.
  • Your recent reading. Up to ten covers, the book you are reading now first, then the ones you finished most recently.
  • A QR code, on iOS 27. It resolves to your card, and nothing else is encoded in it: no email address, no account details, no reading history. On iOS 26 the card carries your member number without the code.

It keeps itself current

Finish a book and the bookshelf on your card changes. You do not need to open anything, tap anything or refresh anything. The card is issued once and updated in place from then on, so you will never end up with two of them.

If you are holding your phone when you finish a book, the card updates in seconds. If the app is closed, it catches up on its own shortly afterwards.

What membership includes

The card is a membership credential, not a subscription. Everything below is part of a free Must Read account.

Your reading, counted properly

Books and pages this year and all time, hours read, average speed, streaks, and a Reading Calendar with a cover for every day you read.

Reading DNA

Your favourite time of day, your busiest weekday, your top genres and your pace. It builds itself from what you read.

A bookshelf you can share

Turn your library into a single image and send it to anyone, no account needed at the other end.

On every screen you own

Widgets on the Home and Lock Screen, an Apple Watch app and complication, and Siri for adding a book or asking what you are reading.

39 languages

The whole app, not just the menus.

Reading reminders

Set them for the days you choose. Free for everyone.

There is more detail on all of it on the Why Must Read page, and a set of guides if you want to go deeper on any one thing.

If you want more room

A free account holds ten books, one classic eBook and one audiobook. Must Read Pro removes the limit on your library and opens the full classics collection, which runs to more than 60,000 public domain titles with a reader built into the app. Your card looks and behaves exactly the same either way.

Looking after your card

  • Adding it. Open Must Read, go to your profile, and choose Add to Apple Wallet.
  • Removing it. Open the card in Wallet, tap the three dots, then Remove Pass. Nothing happens to your account or your books.
  • Getting it back. Add it again from your profile. It returns with the same member number.
  • More than one device. The card syncs through iCloud the way your other passes do.

Privacy

The card holds your first name, the month you joined, your member number, your top genre and the covers of books you have read. It does not hold your email address, your password, your location or anything about how you use the app. Our full privacy policy covers the rest.

Something wrong with your card?

Write to [email protected] and tell us your member number. It is the fastest way for us to find you.

Download Must Read – The Book Tracker