Square, a digital payments platform, said Thursday it opened an early-access program with support for select sellers to use Apple’s Tap to Pay on iPhone feature. It will work with the Square Point of Sale app.
The program will roll out across the platform for all sellers later this year, the company said.
Square tests Apple’s Tap to Pay ahead of full rollout for all sellers on the payments platform
Apple’s Tap to Pay feature lets one iPhone user pay another without any other hardware. It started rolling out at Apple Stores nationwide last week.
On the Square platform, select sellers in an early-access program can accept in-person contactless payments starting Thursday using an iPhone and the Square app. They’ll need no additional hardware for the transaction.
As Square noted in a press release:
Using just the Square POS app and an iPhone, sellers will be able to seamlessly and securely take contactless payments with Tap to Pay on iPhone. This builds on Square’s powerful software which helps sellers drive more business with marketing and loyalty programs; easily track and manage product inventory; and even simplify their cash flow with business banking tools that provide them instant access to their Square sales.
The early-access program for sellers will let Square test Tap to Pay before a wider debut. Square users can sign up to test Tap to Pay on the Square website.
Apple introduced the feature in February
Cupertino introduced Tap to Pay on iPhone in February. It’s designed to skip added hardware and let NFC-compatible iPhones directly accept payments through Apple Pay, contactless credit and debit cards, and other digital wallets.
Until now, Square’s payment method required a dongle plugged into an iPhone through the Lightning port or connected via Bluetooth.
Previously, Stripe and Dutch payment processing company Adyen implemented support for Tap to Pay. Currently, Tap to Pay is limited to the U.S.
