Apple Inc. plans to release a much-anticipated Tap to Pay feature on the iPhone later this year, giving merchants an alternative to Block Inc.’s Square technology.
The option will let sellers accept payments through Apple Pay, credit cards and digital wallets without additional hardware, the company said in a statement. The system relies on near field communication, or NFC. Apple’s plan, which was previously reported by Bloomberg, sent shares of Block down as much as 3.2% after it was announced Tuesday.
“Tap to Pay on iPhone will provide businesses with a secure, private and easy way to accept contactless payments and unlock new checkout experiences,” Jennifer Bailey, Apple’s vice president of Apple Pay and Apple Wallet, said in the statement.
Stripe Inc. will be the first payment platform to offer the feature to customers, with more coming later this year. “Whether you’re a salesperson at an internet-first retailer or an individual entrepreneur, you can soon accept contactless payments on a device that’s already in your pocket: your iPhone,” Billy Alvarado, Stripe’s chief business officer, said in the statement.
Apple has been working on the new feature since around 2020, when it paid about $100 million for a Canadian startup called Mobeewave that developed technology for smartphones to accept payments with the tap of a credit card.
