Last week, Starbucks updated their iOS app to introduce sending gift cards via iMessage and Apple Pay. Now, there is a promotion to help spread the message about this feature, offering customers $5 free when they gift $5 using iMessage and Apple Pay.
The promo started on April 6 and goes until April 19 11:59 PST, or until all 5,000 promotional gifts have been distributed. The offer is only open to those in Canada with an Apple Pay account, plus have downloaded the Starbucks Gifts for iMessage app with an iPhone 5s or newer, and are on iOS 10.2.1 or higher.
Here’s how to get your $5 gift according to Starbucks:
Here’s our tutorial on how to send a Starbucks iMessage Gift.
I just tested this by sending a $5 card to my wife (#browniepoints), and shortly afterwards we received the bonus $5 Starbucks gift card via email. So it appears there are still lots of these $5 bonus gifts available. When you click ‘redeem your gift’ in the email, it’ll ask to launch the Starbucks iOS app, which you can then add the card to the app.
Let us know if this works for you!
Want to see more of our stories on Google?
P.S. Want to keep this site truly independent? Support us by buying us a beer, treating us to a coffee, or shopping through Amazon here. Links in this post are affiliate links, so we earn a tiny commission at no charge to you. Thanks for supporting independent Canadian media!
It is 8:15 pm & still works
Just did it 4:15pm PST and no email from Starbucks …
Just did it…and got the $5 email right away. Nice! 🙂
Does the recipient need Apple Pay?
They don’t. Works!
Me too, got the $5 card.
I didn’t see a prompt to add Apple Pay, but that info is here:
https://www.starbucks.com/card/imessage-mobile-gift
Still works as of 10:30pm ET
Sent myself a gift card and now I can’t use it 🙁
Got the other $5 in the email though!
Love it.
He’s alive!
🙂
Always lurking.
I see others have confirmed so April 10 8PM PST still working.
Worked as of 05:30 am on apr 11
Sent one to myself, received the 5$ 10 seconds after. Thanks!
I wonder if you can do more than one?
Yes, can someone confirm?
Thought about it myself, but then looked at the terms. “Qualifying customers will receive the Promotional Gift via email to the email address associated with their Apple Pay account”
So the short answer is… yes, if you’re willing to go through the hassle of changing your Apple Pay (Apple ID?) email, login under a different Starbucks account, and maybe use a different credit card in your Apple Pay.
That’s *if* their dev team thought to check against all these things
Worked great – Tuesday 08:40 EST
Sadly, couldn’t get it to work for me… Although I can reload my Starbucks card using Apple Pay without any problems, when I try to send a gift through the iMessage app using the same card and other information, I consistently get an error: “We’re unable to process payment with the information given. Please check your selected payment method and try again.”
It charged my credit card, gave me a receipt and then wouldn’t give me the card to send. The company that does their support in my opinion, is terrible.
Starbucks has updated the first paragraph in the link above to note that the offer is now sold out:
It’s also interesting that they include the iPhone 5s as the minimum, as that one doesn’t support Apple Pay in any way (no Secure Enclave).