There are a lot of things that separate the Apple Card from the regular credit cards you're used to, but chief among them may be the fact that this is the first one that completely changes its look from day to day. If you're wondering why the Apple Card changes colors — at least, the digital version in your Apple Wallet — there's actually a fairly simple explanation. The colors of the Apple Card shift with every single transaction you make, and are entirely dependent on what kind of purchase you make with that transaction, resulting in a card color that is entirely unique to you.
Before I get into what each color means, if you've applied and gotten an Apple Card — a process that just become publicly available to qualifying users on Aug. 20 — you'll notice that when you first see it in your Apple Wallet, it's entirely white. The next color it changes to will depend on whatever your first purchase happens to be. Say, for instance, the very first thing that you buy with your Apple Card is dinner at a fast food joint. Since the Food & Drink category of purchases in Apple Card are orange-coded, you'll see an orange color bloom over the Apple Card.
Then say you walk down the street and buy a movie ticket. "Entertainment" is pink-coded in the Apple Card, so the moment you make that purchase, a blot of pink will also appear. The size of the blot of pink versus the blot of orange will depend on how much money you spent on those purchases. Essentially, your Apple Card is an abstract art-styled map of how you're spending your money, and what you're spending it on.
If you want to know which colors align with which type of purchases, here's the complete color coding, according to Apple:
- Green — Travel
- Blue — Transportation
- Orange — Food & Drink
- Pink — Entertainment
- Purple — Services
- Yellow — Shopping
- Red — Health
So if you really put it upon yourself to overachieve and taste the Apple rainbow, you could spend exactly $10 on each category and assumably have a lovely colorful collage.
Whenever you want to blank slate the Apple Card to start fresh, you can do it with the tap of a button — as soon as you pay your balance, which you can do at any time, the Apple Card will turn white again, and the color process will start over depending on what purchases you make next. The white titanium card you have the option of getting from Apple when you sign up for the card will, of course, stay the same color, but I supposed nothing is stopping you from coloring on it yourself.
If you ever want another reference for which color means what, you'll also notice this same color coding in other places in the Apple Wallet pertaining to your card; if you tap to see your Weekly Activity, which displays your transactions for the week, you'll see them organized by the type of purchase, each of which is represented by an icon in one of the colors listed above. It's an easy, digestible way both to look at your past spending, and give it a loose sense of organization. Managing your finances has never been more Instagrammable than it is in 2019.
