Apple prepares to bring one of the most-requested social money features directly into iPhone, with a new bill-splitting tool expected to debut as part of iOS 27 this fall, according to a new report Monday. We expect to hear more about it next week at WWDC26.
Bill-splitting tool coming to iOS 27
The feature is built around a simple idea. After a group dinner or shared outing, a user points their iPhone camera at the receipt, and the app takes it from there, according to Bloomberg‘s Mark Gurman. The tool will read the receipt, allow you to assign individual items to different people and then automatically send out payment requests — factoring in each person’s portion of the food, plus tax and tip.
The service lives within Apple’s existing financial ecosystem. It connects to Apple Cash, the peer-to-peer payment system already baked into the Wallet app. And you can access the bill splitter either from Wallet itself or through the Messages app. Apple Watch owners will also be able to approve payments directly from their wrist.
A broader push into everyday finance
NEW: Apple readies iOS 27 service that will let users split bills for dinners, events by taking a photo of a receipt and assigning items to friends. This will be part of Apple Wallet and Cash, taking on Venmo and Splitwise. https://t.co/uSCQiLvGUI
— Mark Gurman (@markgurman) June 1, 2026
This isn’t Apple’s first move in the payments space. The company introduced Apple Pay back in 2014 and has since expanded steadily into financial services — launching Apple Card, a savings account developed with Goldman Sachs and tap-to-pay tools for small businesses. The new bill-splitting feature fits that pattern. It lets Apple push deeper into territory currently held by dedicated apps like Venmo, Cash App, Splitwise and Tab.
Apple’s financial track record has been mixed. The Goldman Sachs partnership behind the Apple Card reportedly strained the bank’s consumer division. And Apple quietly shut down its buy-now-pay-later service roughly a year after it launched. Even so, the company continues to build out its financial tools, particularly ones that embed naturally into daily iPhone use.
What it means for you
If you’ve ever fumbled through a dinner with seven people trying to calculate who owes what, this feature is aimed squarely at that moment. Rather than switching to a third-party app, the experience would stay entirely within Apple’s own software. That’s a familiar pattern for Apple, which tends to absorb popular third-party functionality over time.
Apple Cash is currently only available in the United States, so the bill-splitting feature is expected to launch in the U.S. first.
More Wallet improvements on the way
The bill-splitting tool isn’t the only new addition coming to the Wallet app. Gurman also reported that iOS 27 will include a “Create a Pass” feature. It lets users build their own digital passes by scanning physical cards or tickets — things like gym membership cards, movie tickets, or concert passes. So they get stored and used directly from Wallet.
More broadly, iOS 27 shapes up to be a significant update. We expect a particular focus on artificial intelligence: an upgraded Siri, AI-powered photo editing, a new Siri camera mode and various design refinements are all reportedly in the works.
Apple will unveil iOS 27, most likely along with the bill-splitting feature, at its Worldwide Developers Conference next week.
David Snow, an expert on Apple hardware and software, writes on a variety of technological and cultural topics for Cult of Mac. They include Apple news, technology buying guides, and features about computer setups and Apple TV shows and movies.
With 30 years of experience covering technology and other subjects, he has written and edited for numerous print and online publications, including CMP Media, TechTV.com, CNET, Wired News, Red Herring magazine, Law.com, The National Law Journal and Law Technology News magazine. Among other roles, he served as executive editor of the Law.com network of websites and editorial director, technology, for ALM Media.
Snow graduated with a B.A. from Syracuse University with majors in magazine journalism and psychology. While there, he worked as a reporter for The Daily Orange newspaper and associate editor of Equal Time magazine.
Founder of the blog At the Waterline, he can be reached on X (formerly Twitter) via @atthewaterline and on Mastodon via @dsnow.
