The future of digital payments has finally arrived on the iPhone. Sort of.
Apple’s new peer-to-peer payments system called Apple Pay Cash is finally rolling out to public beta testers today with the release of the public beta for iOS 11.2 beta 2 and watchOS 4.2 beta 2, giving iPhone and iPad users the ability to send money to each other electronically.
Apple Pay Cash was previewed during WWDC 2017, but the feature hasn’t been available to test until now. Employees at Apple were allowed to test the feature internally since October with a special build of iOS 11.1, however, Apple didn’t give developers access to the feature.
Members of Apple’s Public Beta Testing program can download iOS 11.2 beta 2 now along with watchOS 4.2 beta 2. If you’re not a member yet, you can still sign up for the program and test the new Apple Pay Cash feature. You’ll only be able to send and receive money from other iPhone and iPad users running iOS 11.2 beta 2 though.
With Apple Pay Cash, you can connect your debit card to your iPhone to send friends money. When you receive money it’s added to an Apple Pay Cash card that lives in the Wallet app. You can then use that card to make purchases with Apple Pay, or have it transferred over to your bank account.
Sending money is as easy as texting. All you do is open the iMessage app, tap on the App Store icon in next to the keyboard and then select Apple Pay. From there you just type in the amount and hit send.
