The new Tap to Pay system, available for the iPhone, was launched around the month of February. Through this system, users who wish to can transform their device into a payment terminal. It is not necessary to have to carry out a whole ostentatious paperwork or any other action. Virtually contactless, the user can make the payment through his iPhone.
Once you activate the function, as a customer you will have to tap on the iPhone with NFC or have a bank card on the top of the receiving phone. In this way, the function performs the transaction without any other contact on average. At the moment, customers in the Apple Store at the Visitor Center Apple Park already enjoy this feature for payments.
The visitor center already handles this handy feature
A quick bit of context to mention about this function, is that Tap to Pay’s predecessor is Apple Pay. The predecessor function had been working since 2014 making contactless payments. Now with Tap to Pay this function improves even more, making and receiving payments without the use of a terminal or any other hardware, being totally contactless. It should be noted that to use this interesting system, it is enough to have an iPhone XS or later.
It is currently not available to all customers. However, the function is for another sector, such as business. The platforms they want through Shopify point of sale or even Adyen. One of the most commented rumors, they speculate that when it is released for the whole world, users will be able to transfer money just by having their smartphones nearby. Support for this would be via Apple Pay Cash for iOS 16.
As for the employees of the Apple Store, this system is not genuinely new, since they have maintained this type of payment for years. Payments through Apple Pay are common for employees thanks to a special accessory, a case for their devices that allows them to get paid.
With the inclusion of new features such as Tap to Pay on iPhone devices, accessories by Apple Store employees will gradually fall out of use. Through the following video, the way in which a user was able to carry out a transaction with this system when he was in the Apple Park Visitor Center is shown:
The Apple Park Visitor Center is one of the only apple retail stores in the US to support contactless pay straight from an iPhone. Awesome to see in person! pic.twitter.com/GiFDiL56OO
— Michael  (@NTFTWT) May 15, 2022
The Visitor Center as a testing ground
It is well known that when it comes to this type of new mechanism, the best place to test is usually the Visitor Center. This huge testing ground may continue to work for future plans, especially regarding the Apple Store. This place receives many customers, it is the ideal place to know what and how the new technologies and functions that Apple decides to use work.
Knowing what kind of problems new systems have is absolutely necessary from their first tests before they go any further. This is going to be really beneficial for the company, especially thinking about the next event. It should be remembered that during this year’s WWDC, a small face-to-face event will be held and although there are fewer people than usual in Apple’s keynote history, it would be one of the best times to test functions such as Tap to Pay.
Finally, it makes sense that Apple continues to introduce more functions related to the practicality of everyday acts such as paying. Tap to Pay can be one of the first to start a period of global functions for quick uses and that help users on a daily basis. Especially since it is already a system that users are related to, but now even easier without accessories involved.
