Square confirms adding Apple Pay support in 2015

Square Reader (image 003)

Square, the increasingly popular mobile payment and processing firm, is going to support Apple Pay soon. That’s the gist of a comment CEO Jack Dorsey (who co-founded Twitter) made speaking with CNN Money. Apple Pay integration in the Square Reader will require a new hardware iteration of the accessory with built-in NFC circuitry.

Apple Pay, which also relies on NFC, will become available as an option for Square users sometime in 2015.

“We’re not building a credit card. We’re not building a payment device. We’re building a cash register, and this register accepts all these forms of payments,” Dorsey told CNN in an interview.

After the Square Reader hardware gets retooled for Apple Pay compatibility and the service has launched on the Square platform, seamless transactions from one mobile device to another will be made possible.

More importantly, small business owners who use Square Register will be able to accept Apple Pay without any hassle.

The announcement makes sense.

Looking to grow its revenues, Square earlier this week said that its Square Register iOS app for small business owners is available worldwide. As a bonus, business owners can now order Square-branded gift cards for a small fee of $1.50 per card and no hidden costs, Square said, adding it’s ditching a virtual gift card service it launched two years ago.

And in another interesting move, Square and Snapchat partnered on a Snapcash service that lets Snapchatters send and receive money among themselves.

Snapchat Snapcash (image 001)

In other Apple Pays news today, Tickets.com announced rolling out support for the Apple-branded mobile payment service while Sephora said it’s now accepting Apple Pay in Bay Area and Manhattan locations.

Yesterday, the Disney Store iOS app got refreshed with support for Apple Pay. And last but not least, Chase customers can now access David Guetta’s new album “Listen” for free, if they add their Chase card to Apple Pay.

Eager to learn if Apple Pay is accepted near you? This app will tell you.

Square Register 3.0 for iOS (iPad screenshot 005)

It’s interesting that ApplePay.com is owned by a company called Apple One Payroll, and the iPhone maker doesn’t seem to care. According to a Stratos survey, 30 percent of American smartphone owners plan to use ApplePay or Google Wallet this holiday shopping season.

[CNN Money]