PayPal finally adds Touch ID protection to iPhone payment app

PayPal 5.11.5 for iOS iPhone screenshot 001

PayPal’s official iPhone app in the App Store has at last received support for Touch ID authentication, nearly two years following Apple’s debut of fingerprint scanning with the iPhone 5s’s fall 2013 introduction.

As a daily PayPal user, it was annoying that the mobile app would ask me to provide my PayPal password on each run. Now that Touch ID has come to the rescue, this option, once enabled in settings, lets me authorize app access easily and securely with my fingerprint.

This is what Touch ID was created for, to protect sensitive personal information like online banking, PayPal transactions and so forth. I wish PayPal supported Touch ID much sooner but it’s better late than never, I guess.

To enable Touch ID, first log in to the PayPal app on your iPhone with your username and password. Then navigate to in-app settings and enable Touch ID under the Login section.

Like before, you can optionally flip the Remember Me switch on to have PayPal show your photo and name and provide access to login options on each run. I suggest enabling Touch ID and disabling Remember Me, for security purposes.

PayPal 5.11.5 for iOS iPhone screenshot 002

In addition to Touch ID support, this edition of PayPal’s iPhone app has fixed a few known bugs, too.

The 44.5-megabyte download supports an iPhone or iPod touch with iOS 7.1 or later. Sadly, iPads and native iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus resolutions are yet to be supported natively.

PayPal is available at no cost in the App Store.