Today has been a busy one for Apple so far. Not only did the company officially announce a brand new contactless payment feature for the iPhone, which is coming soon. But the company also seeded the latest beta for iOS 15.4. And now the company is laying the groundwork for the feature.
Apple seeded the second beta of iOS 15.4 to developers today. And, with it, included the framework necessary for the upcoming “Tap to Pay” feature the company announced earlier today (via MacRumors). With this rollout of the beta, Apple is giving the green light to the feature as a whole. However, while it may be enabled, it’s not actually available.
As Apple confirmed with its announcement, Tap to Pay requires additional support to actually function. Specifically, third-party developer and app support. The service allows for the iPhone to accept payments through Apple Pay, via contactless debit and credit cards, and other digital wallet services without any additional hardware.
Simply tap and pay with the iPhone itself.
Code references “ContactlessReaderUIService,” and that’s about it as far as signs go for the upcoming feature. There are no forward facing elements that the end user will be able to find indicating the upcoming arrival of Tap to Pay.
As noted above, though, it will require third-party support. Stripe has already confirmed it will be one of the first companies to support Tap to Pay on iPhones. According to Stripe, the feature is expected to go live sometime in the spring of this year. Apple’s announcement said Tap to Pay is coming later this year, but didn’t nail down any specific dates.
Tap to Pay will support the iPhone XS and newer models. When it goes live, it will allow users to accept mobile payments, or payments from supported debit and credit cards, directly with a tap.