Apple announced last February the new “Tap to Pay on iPhone” feature that will allow compatible iPhones to accept contactless payments without the need for additional hardware. At launch, this feature will be available exclusively in the US and will be compatible with iPhone XS and later.
Apple also claimed that “Tap to Pay on iPhone” it will also be available in all Apple Stores in the United Statesagain starting from the end of the year, and just in one of his shops, precisely that of the Visitor Center of the Apple Park in Cupertino, a test phase has already been started.
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
As shown in a video posted on Twitter, the Apple Store employee’s iPhone XS it is used as a POS to accept a contactless payment by a customer who does nothing but bring his iPhone on which he has previously authenticated the card. That’s all, without any other hardware even if the iPhone is inserted into a cover from Mophie which is usually used to attach an external POS on the back.
When the feature launches, merchants, small businesses and large retailers will also be able to accept payments using normal contactless credit and debit cards – American Express, Discover, Mastercard and Visa – plus other digital wallets.
Currently, to use an iPhone or iPad to accept contactless payments you need an external reader, such as the one from SumUp, for example, which works wirelessly, or other types that connect to the Lightning connector of an iPhone or to the headphone jack. .
Tap to Pay on iPhone will be available for payment platforms and developers alike will be able to integrate it into their iOS apps as an additional payment option. According to Apple, customers’ payment data are protected by the same technology that makes Apple Pay – which arrived in Italy in 2017 – and all transactions private and secure. are encrypted and processed using the Secure Element. Apple claims that will never know what is being bought or who is buying it.
When Apple announced Tap to Pay for the first time, the only partner communicated was Stripe which was later joined by the Dutch payment processing company Adyen, which bodes well for a future expansion of the availability of the service. in other countries.
