Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
The NFC chip is useful for a lot more than just payments!

I have to tap my badge six times just to get to my desk in the morning, and probably another couple dozen times throughout the day to move around the building. While I have to always visibly wear my badge, I would still like to be able to tap my phone, or Apple Watch, to go through doors or quickly login to our company terminals. Android users can already do that here, while iPhone users can't.
It is possible to add many, if not all, today. Apple opened NFC up to all but payment in iOS 13 (Pass.NFC). There are also apps that can add NFC cards to Wallet (NFC Tools). I haven’t played much with this, but the capability is already there for much of this.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ZZ9pluralZalpha
My concern is that banks will pull their cards from Apple Pay and now I'm opening 5 different apps in order to use tap to pay. IMO, that's not a win for consumers and is a big step backwards.

Until the financial institution makes that decision for you. How long before all this banks pushing me to join their Paze network pull out of Apple Pay / Wallet and force me to use only their new Paze wallet? Or worse each forces me to only use their app.

I’m sure I am in for many “no one will pull out of Apple Pay” or something. I’m not so sure. Imagine if this was around during the CurrentC mess.

Also, I don’t see how this opens the door for the panacea of new options for passes, IDs, or anything else listed in the article. That are all possible now but the owners of said passes, IDs, and whatnot are not opening up to Wallet. Some of these may introduce the feature in their own apps, I guess. But that directly leads to the fragmentation,

This is a win for banks and businesses. This does nothing for consumers.

Banks will choose the option where their cards gets used most easily and most frequently by customers. Credit card companies earn transaction fees.

Why do you think so many banks want you to add Apple Pay?

Opening up NFC means fintech apps can now do C2C transactions. PayPal transactions can be done by tapping two phones together, for example.
 
Apple Pay is not anonymous and never has been, even if they don't have your info. They still collect and collate transactions and link buying habits between visits and know it's you when tapping to pay.
They don’t it’s it me, i7guy who lives at 1600 Pennsylvania Ave as far as I know.
I opted for an emailed receipt from a local vendor after using Apple Pay. Now whenever I use Apple Pay there they auto-populate my email address and know it's me.
They know your email address.
I never enter any info in beforehand. Same goes for all the local restaurants using Square terminals. They know it's me as soon as I tap, even if I haven't been there before.
Apple Pay does not let businesses uniquely identify you. They may identify things about you though.
 
Complicated feelings here: (unless you are a fanboy).

I am satisfied with Apple Pay and I hope that each bank's implementation is as smooth as Apple's own because otherwise this is a setback for us, users. (And that we are not forced to maintain multiple 3rd party wallets)

On the other hand if Apple weren't that dictatorial about NFC, the EU would not be forced to issue such a regulation, so overall I think that this regulation is a necessary evil at worst.
I think it's important to remember that Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are two separate products. There's nothing that would stop Apple from allowing apps to add items to Apple Wallet even if it uses a third party payment network on the back end.
 
As much as look forward to different use cases and increased competition over this change, I worry this will fragment Apple Wallet. I'll be so mad if, for example, Amex or LifeTime or any of my other passes don't work in the Wallet app or with Apple Pay anymore because they want me to go into their app to use them. Pros and cons to this but we'll see how it shakes out.
Vote with your wallet (😆) and get an alternative credit card.
 
Until the financial institution makes that decision for you. How long before all this banks pushing me to join their Paze network pull out of Apple Pay / Wallet and force me to use only their new Paze wallet? Or worse each forces me to only use their app.

I’m sure I am in for many “no one will pull out of Apple Pay” or something. I’m not so sure. Imagine if this was around during the CurrentC mess.

Also, I don’t see how this opens the door for the panacea of new options for passes, IDs, or anything else listed in the article. That are all possible now but the owners of said passes, IDs, and whatnot are not opening up to Wallet. Some of these may introduce the feature in their own apps, I guess. But that directly leads to the fragmentation,

This is a win for banks and businesses. This does nothing for consumers.
My local public transport authority have wanted to implement a transit card on Apple Wallet via NFC from the beginning, as well tap and go with fare capping.
Apple never responded to their requests, they are too busy trying to tie up major cities in the USA and Asia. Now my local transport authority can just go ahead and develop it themselves. It will be massive for people who want to use digital options.
 
  • Love
Reactions: jm22381
It is possible to add many, if not all, today. Apple opened NFC up to all but payment in iOS 13 (Pass.NFC). There are also apps that can add NFC cards to Wallet (NFC Tools). I haven’t played much with this, but the capability is already there for much of this.
The thing is though, I believe a developer used to have to request for Apple to make the pass that can use NFC. Apple basically got to Starbucks, developed it for them, and then fobbed everyone off.
Now I believe the developer can create it themselves, and Apple just has to sign it off when they sign the app off for use.
 
On one hand I'm happy that this opens up more possibilities for contactless access. However I am very concerned that this will fragment Apple Wallet. I like the idea of having home keys, car keys, hotel keys, credit cards, rewards cards, and drivers licenses all in one app that I know is secure and private. I don't want to open a separate app to pay with my Visa, and another to pay with Mastercard, and another app for unlocking my home, and another for unlocking my car.

On the other hand if this encourages companies who were never going to support Apple Wallet to actually do something with contactless access I guess its better than nothing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: surferfb
This is very good news for places where Apple Pay is not available, such as Türkiye. Not being able to make a simple contactless payment with my iPhone is sometimes thought of as inadequacy of the device. This was my only annoyance when I switched from Android to iOS. It's not a 60hz screen. haha. (year 2023)
 
This is fine as long as Apple Pay stays an option. Taking that option away from the hundreds of millions of users in favor of a separate app isn't a good thing either. I don't want to set a different wallet app to every single card I own.

Exactly... one wallet, not different apps. Or is that the reason for the extra button on the newer iPhone? 🙃
 
I will say, long over due for a lot of use cases.

Good thing I only generally use two cards for Apple Pay and one of them is my Apple Card. The other is my bank, and I don’t see them spending the money on their own wallet. They just did an app refresh after like 5 years (IMO the new one is worse form over the old one)
 
This is great news. Forget about P2P payments - this is big for transit, hotels, students and workers that need to "tap" in for building access.

This only makes iPhone more useful going forward.
What s new?

iOS had been supporting home key, hotel key and government id etc.

And how good is having 3rd party app to access the sensitive data?

I am foreseeing that merchants would insist on using their own apps for ID, keys and event tickets in lieu of Apple wallet. So, we will have different apps for different events, keys and ids cos they are from different vendors.

It is not good at all.
 
I will say, long over due for a lot of use cases.

Good thing I only generally use two cards for Apple Pay and one of them is my Apple Card. The other is my bank, and I don’t see them spending the money on their own wallet. They just did an app refresh after like 5 years (IMO the new one is worse form over the old one)
I rather see merchants and banks using Apple wallet as a hub to access or store sensitive info than launching their own apps, hence insisting users to use merchant apps for different things, keys, ids, event tickets.

At the end, we will have to install too many apps.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ZZ9pluralZalpha
iOS had been supporting home key, hotel key and government id etc.

Could be that Apple's wallet implementation is not satisfactory for whatever business. Plenty of places have NFC readers that don't work with Apple Wallet for whatever reason - my college had this issue!

And how good is having 3rd party app to access the sensitive data?

The 3rd party that issues you the card already has your data.

I am foreseeing that merchants would insist on using their own apps for ID, keys and event tickets in lieu of Apple wallet. So, we will have different apps for different events, keys and ids cos they are from different vendors.

Apps have already been doing that, this changes nothing on that front.
 
I have zero doubt that any consumer benefits to this will quickly be drowned by the wave of stores and banks making NFC payments exclusive to their data-mining, bug-ridden, poorly-designed apps. How many banks have you found with a non-webview app—I recently caught Citi quietly bundling a "shopping assistant" Safari plugin with their account management app, which felt like a throwback to the browser toolbar malware of the Windows XP era—and 2FA that isn't SMS only? How many stores intentionally disabled Apple Pay on their terminals to keep hoovering shopping data? Apple's restrictions may have been for their own selfish reasons, but they did keep some of the miscreants in line; now it'll be open season on user experience. Thanks for nothing, EU.
 
  • Like
Reactions: iOS Geek and d.o.p.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.