In February Apple unveiled Tap to Pay, a new feature that will enable merchants to accept payments with only an iPhone — something that could cut into the business of companies like Square. Now, it turns out that Apple is already testing the feature at its own Apple Park visitor center in Cupertino.
A video tweeted by user @NTFTWT, spotted by MacRumors, shows the system in action, with a customer making an Apple Pay payment directly to the iPhone of an Apple staffer. They simply needed to touch their iPhone to the other iPhone, with no payment terminal in sight.
As we detailed earlier, the technology requires an iPhone XS or later device. It works with Apple Pay, of course, but will also support contact-free credit and debit cards, third-party payment platforms and other digital wallets. Stripe has already detailed plans to offer Tap to Pay on iPhone to business customers in the spring, with other platforms and apps scheduled to come later in 2022. Dutch processor Adyen will work with Lightspeed Commerce, Newstore and other commerce platforms to help them use Tap to Pay.
Apple promised a future iOS beta giving developers a look at Tap to Pay, but it has yet to release a date. Now that it seems to be operational at Apple’s own office, though, it might be a sign that it’ll launch soon in the US and around the world.
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