OK, you have heard about it, read about it, got 'excited' about it BUT how will it work? What is it? Its Apple's iOS11 payment system. Yeah, its coming in September and will make peer-to-peer payments so much smoother for Apple mobile device users. Can't you just feel the jealousy from PayPal and Venmo? So, here's how it will work and you will know before the September announcement.
(Bill Taylor/CEO)
Apple Pay can be used to pay online or at stores, but it'll soon get peer-to-peer payments, too. That means payments to friends or anyone else you have on your contacts list. The feature was announced in June at Apple's developer conference, where it was marketed as one of the big upgrades in iOS 11. That update to iPhones and iPads is likely to hit some time in September, if Apple follows its traditional release schedule.
While plenty of other mobile payment apps exist to transfer money to friends -- such as PayPal and Venmo -- Apple Pay's tight integration with the rest of the company's software ecosystem could make it the most seamless solution for Apple users. It doesn't require additional accounts to be set up. But Android users can't send or receive payments: Both sides of the transaction need to be on iMessage.
We've seen a brief demo of the service in action. Here's everything we know about peer-to-peer payments so far.
- It'll be US-only at first.
- Much like Apple Pay was when it first launched, peer-to-peer payments will be a US feature at first.
- You can pay someone via iMessage or Siri, on iPhone, iPad, or Apple Watch.
- You do need to make sure the other person has an active iMessage account, though.
- When a payment is received, it's immediately converted to an Apple Pay Cash Card.\
- The virtual card lives in Wallet on iOS 11, and can be used like a gift card to make payments. The advantage is that it's essentially a virtual instant bank account for cash, and payments are received instantaneously. This is how other payment systems like Venmo and PayPal work, too.
- You get money in the Cash Card even if you're not enrolled in Apple Pay. Surprise! If you get a payment you don't need to do anything to set it up. Once money is transferred, an Apple Pay Cash Card gets automatically generated on your phone..."