iOS 15.4 Beta 2 Adds 'Tap to Pay on iPhone' Framework

[MacRumors]

The second beta of iOS 15.4 adds code for the new "Tap to Pay" feature that Apple announced this morning. "Tap to Pay on iPhone" is designed to allow NFC-compatible iPhones to accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets, without requiring additional hardware.

Tap to Pay on iPhone is enabled in the latest beta, but it does require third-party providers to add support, so it is not yet available for use. There are no outward-facing signs of it that are visible to end users, but there's a new "PaymentReceived" sound file and images that show off the Tap to Pay interface.

MacRumors contributor Steve Moser has also discovered references to a "ContactlessReaderUIService" in the code, as well as mentions of alerts that end users will see. The feature will support reward passes and refunds.

• iPhone ready to accept a contactless payment.
• Hold your card or device to the seller's iPhone and wait for the success sound.
• To accept contactless payments, turn on NFC and try again.
• The payment timed out for your security. Try again when you are ready to accept a payment.
• Multiple reward passes applied
• Pay %@ %@
• Refund from %@ for %@"
• Try Again & Hold Card Longer
• Use your iPhone to accept payments from contactless credit and debit cards, Apple Pay, or any other contactless payment devices.

The Tap to Pay feature will work with the iPhone XS or later, and will allow supported iOS apps to accept iPhone to iPhone payments. At checkout, a merchant is able to prompt a customer to hold their iPhone, Apple Watch, contactless credit or debit card, or other digital wallet close to the merchant's iPhone to complete a payment over NFC.

Stripe has announced that it will be the first payment platform to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to business customers, including Shopify users, later this spring. Apple Stores in the U.S. will also roll out support for the feature later this year.

Article Link: iOS 15.4 Beta 2 Adds 'Tap to Pay on iPhone' Framework

 

[AppleM]

Good!!!!

 

[sydneysider88]

The big banks and Square: not stonks

 

[TheYayAreaLiving 🎗️]

I love it. Can’t wait to find out what real-world usage is going to be like. Hoping for easy and seamless transactions through the iPhone. It’s that easy! 📱 💳 ❌

 

[CarAnalogy]

I thought it can be used with Apple Cash? That should mean everyone can begin using it right away, unless I misunderstand.

 

[jaytv111]

I love it. Can’t wait to find out what real-world usage is going to be like. Hoping for easy and seamless transactions through the iPhone. It’s that easy! ? ? ❌

Real-world it's not changing much for existing businesses because you need to be a merchant to accept payments, this isn't for you sending money to grandma or whatever.

Most likely it'll help restaurants or others to have employees carry an iPhone to the table to accept payments instead of taking your card to a POS terminal. But for non-contactless cards they will have to go to the terminal.

I thought it can be used with Apple Cash? That should mean everyone can begin using it right away, unless I misunderstand.

You misunderstood. This is an option for Stripe and other payment processors to accept payments. It's not for sending money person to person. Or if you mean can you pay with Apple Pay Cash, then yes, Apple Pay Cash is a contactless debit transaction that can be processed like any other contactless debit. Funny enough tons of readers don't take it though because it's using Discover contactless and the program is different for Discover over Visa and Mastercard and not every reader understands Discover contactless.

 

[dontwalkhand]

The big banks and Square: not stonks

This is just an API/SDK. They can easily write their own app to utilize this.

 

[KaliYoni]

Boo yah! Can't wait to start buying crypto from some guy on the street instead of a corner store "ATM".

 

[_Spinn_]

Very exciting! I can't wait to see how this is used in the real world.

 

[MozMan68]

This is just an API/SDK. They can easily write their own app to utilize this.

This...Square will just save money by not having to provide hardware for iPhones/iPads. Will still work!

 

[genovelle]

You will still need a swiper or chip reader for the millions of cards that don’t have wireless capabilities. They could also send them a quick invoice from the App and they can enter their information And pay that way.

 

[jezbd1997]

You will still need a swiper or chip reader for the millions of cards that don’t have wireless capabilities. They could also send them a quick invoice from the App and they can enter their information And pay that way.

If you're in a modern country like Australia 10/11 of our cards have nfc so...

 

[LeadingHeat]

I wonder if they’re holding out on allowing Apple Pay peer to peer to work using this until some third party vendors are utilizing it. For all the FTC vultures out there ready to pounce on “anticompetitive” claims.

This seems like a no brainer to add for Apple Pay. Easier than texting someone, plus can be done with strangers. (Yard sales, Craigslist, etc)

 

[dontwalkhand]

You will still need a swiper or chip reader for the millions of cards that don’t have wireless capabilities. They could also send them a quick invoice from the App and they can enter their information And pay that way.

That or just type in the numbers. Since the cards without a contactless chip are becoming fewer and fewer, typing in the numbers should suffice for these use cases.

 

[123]

You will still need a swiper or chip reader for the millions of cards that don’t have wireless capabilities. They could also send them a quick invoice from the App and they can enter their information And pay that way.

That's why it doesn't make sense to start offering such features in a third world country.

 

[Hc9019]

This is good. Hopefully they bring it to the UK soon, where the contactless card limit has been raised to £100 recently, so will cover a good proportion of transactions.

 

[lartola]

Most likely it'll help restaurants or others to have employees carry an iPhone to the table to accept payments instead of taking your card to a POS terminal. But for non-contactless cards they will have to go to the terminal.

As far as restaurants, only in the US do they continue to take your card away like they’re still in 1990. Everywhere else, restaurants have had portable POS that they bring to the tables for at least a decade. Even in 3rd world countries such as Mexico or other parts of Latin America all restaurants taking cards have had them for that long. In the US, however, restaurant owners have persistently refused to follow suit, to the point that even when they had to upgrade from magnetic stripe to chip, they did it by getting wired pinpads like the ones used in stores. That has led them to remain stuck in 1990 having to take away the customers’ cards to process payments while their counterparts in rest of the world process card payments at the tables.

 

[lartola]

You misunderstood. This is an option for Stripe and other payment processors to accept payments. It's not for sending money person to person. Or if you mean can you pay with Apple Pay Cash, then yes, Apple Pay Cash is a contactless debit transaction that can be processed like any other contactless debit. Funny enough tons of readers don't take it though because it's using Discover contactless and the program is different for Discover over Visa and Mastercard and not every reader understands Discover contactless.

True. I tried to use the Apple Cash card in Mexico, at several places that advertised acceptance of Discover cards and had contactless, and it didn’t work anywhere. Even paypal’s izettle devices, which do accept contactless payment with physical Discover cards, fail to recognize the Apple Cash card.

 

[Baritone_Guy]

That's why it doesn't make sense to start offering such features in a third world country.

I suspect many of those countries likely have more advanced mobile payment than the US. The US is by far the laggard in the payments department. I can remember using chip and pin in the UK around 2004.

I was in hotel in Romania in 15 and ordered a beer at the bar. I gave the server my card to pay which had the contactless feature which I hadn’t used. She came back and just hande me my receipt. I asked “how did you do that” as I was expecting chip and pin. She had just waved the card at her handheld terminal an it processed my Canadian Visa like it would in Canada. I was pretty impressed.

 

[waloshin]

What will the fees be? Same as square…

 

[Krizoitz]

If you're in a modern country like Australia 10/11 of our cards have nfc so...

A lot of easier to roll out in a country with only 26 million people compared to the 330 million in the US, meaning far far fewer cards and devices to replace.

 

[psxp]

If you're in a modern country like Australia 10/11 of our cards have nfc so...

same in Canada.

Not so much in USA

 

[Nuno Lopes]

I think this is huge.

One of the things that always bothered me with Android approach is that the machine certification for the purpose is totally obliterated. Meaning that, who is to say that the App used on the iPhone is not storing the cards Pin?

Dedicated machines are certified … usually supplied by the banks. But on Android, with the fintech boom all this becomes transparent to card holders as such subject to fraud.

Apple tight control of users iPhones has the ability to solve this has no other. Great.

 

[svish]

Feature is coming soon. Want to see it outside US too.

 

[bradman83]

To be clear, this is not Apple launching the ability for individuals to accept payment via phone-to-phone tap to pay. This is an API to allow for merchant service providers like Square, Stripe, and others to offer that functionality in their own apps. This will not allow you to tap to pay your babysitter unless they happen to have a Square account. (I am curious to see if peer-to-peer payment platforms like Venmo, PayPal, or Zelle start to support this though).