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Apple Stores to Expand Use of 'Tap to Pay on iPhone'

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In 2022, Apple began rolling out Tap to Pay on iPhone, a system that allows small business owners and other merchants to accept contactless payments on an iPhone, with no point-of-sale hardware required. The feature allows customers to pay by simply tapping their iPhone or Apple Watch, credit card or debit card, or other contactless payment option on the merchant's iPhone. Payment is securely completed using NFC, like Apple Pay.

Tap to Pay on iPhone Wix
Some of Apple's retail employees have been provided with iPhone 14 units, allowing customers to check out with Tap to Pay on iPhone at the company's stores. Apple has been gradually phasing out its previous Bluetooth credit card readers as part of this transition, and now the company apparently plans to go a step further.

Bloomberg's Mark Gurman today said Apple will be giving more retail employees newer iPhone 16 units to expand its in-store usage of Tap to Pay on iPhone.

"The tap-to-pay system in the iPhone 14 can sometimes be finicky and not support metal cards like American Express Platinum or Chase Sapphire Reserve," he explained. "But Apple has found that the iPhone 16 does a better job and eliminates the need for store employees to carry around the specialized terminals."

iOS 27 builds upon Tap to Pay on iPhone with a new "Tap to Share" feature.

Tags: Apple Store, Mark Gurman, Tap to Pay on iPhone

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Top Rated Comments

Y
Yonizzle
1 day ago at 10:21 am

... so an Isaac device refresh is news to Gurman? Slow weekend, eh? How about some actual meat-and-potatoes about the whole kit they run?



Fun Fact: Did you know Isaac is also a hardware case collaboration with Mophie? And that Isaac is called what it is because, yes, the Newton?
The whole point is that you pay on the iPhone with no intermediate payment terminal. So they can just use the phone without the big Isaac thingy.

I still can’t believe they haven’t put an NFC chip in the iPad so you can run square or other POS apps with no additional hardware. Works great on my phone.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
contacos Avatar
contacos
1 day ago at 09:44 am
Is this widely adapted in the US by businesses yet? I have yet to see it anywhere in Europe. Germany is finally getting better at cashless (believe it or not) but they usually have these small square white thingies
Score: 4 Votes (Like | Disagree)
bradman83 Avatar
bradman83
1 day ago at 11:40 am

Nice. I usually just bring my titanium Apple Card with me to the Apple Store every time I buy something there.

It’s always nice to just drop that thing down on one of the wooden tables in the store 🤨😅 the titanium drop on the wooden table makes a cool sound 🙃👌

Plus, you still get the 3% cashback, regardless of whether it’s with the tap to pay on the iPhone or the titanium Apple Card (in any Apple Store)
Was out to eat at a restaurant that didn't have handheld card readers and the bill was split three ways between one person with their titanium Apple Card, one person with an Amex Platinum and one person with a Chase Sapphire Reserve (the latter are both weighty metal cars). The server joked picking up the folio with the cards in them qualified as strength training.
Score: 3 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
CarlJ
21 hours ago at 02:36 pm

One large holdout (at least in the USA) is Walmart, who won't take Apple Pay or other NFC forms of payment. I think Home Depot was another for a long time, but I may have heard they changed their positioning.
Home Depot does take Apple Pay / NFC now - they famously were surprised when Apple Pay was initially released and "just worked" on their existing terminals and they scrambled to shut it down - "Don't get none of that evil NFC voodoo on our system!"

Walmart is unlikely to ever allow Apple Pay, because they'd rather have you use their less convenient app that lets them track you better, and they want to do direct transfers from your checking account - which saves them credit card transaction fees but removes a ton of protections from consumers (if you get a bad charge on a credit card, you can dispute it - if Walmart takes $1,000 out of your checking, instead of $100, they already have your money and you have to fight to get it back). Reason #37 why I won't shop at Walmart.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CarlJ Avatar
CarlJ
22 hours ago at 02:15 pm

I'm sorry, am I missing something? Why isn't everybody simply using Apple Pay? Whipping out a credit/debit card at any retail POS should have gone the way of asking "can I write a check?" YEARS AGO.
Scenario - you walk into the Apple Store to buy your first iPhone. How do you pay for it?
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
CrapShack Avatar
CrapShack
22 hours ago at 01:41 pm
I'm sorry, am I missing something? Why isn't everybody simply using Apple Pay? Whipping out a credit/debit card at any retail POS should have gone the way of asking "can I write a check?" YEARS AGO.
Score: 2 Votes (Like | Disagree)
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