What Apple Pay is
Apple Pay is Apple's way to pay with a card kept in Apple Wallet, on iPhone, Apple Watch, iPad and Mac, in shops, in apps and on the web, with each payment confirmed by Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode. Apple released it in the US in October 2014, and it is now available in many countries, the UAE and Romania among them.
Apple does not issue the cards or process the payments. Any card in Apple Pay is offered by its issuer: when a customer adds one, a Device Account Number is created for that device through the issuer's service provider, usually the card network, and full card numbers are not stored on the device or on Apple Pay servers. That is why Apple Pay sits in both our card issuing and checkout modules.
What it does in your platform
Card issuing
Customers add your card to Apple Wallet from your app with one tap, and pay with iPhone or Apple Watch the day the card is issued. Each Apple Pay payment then reaches the module like any other authorisation, checked against your ledger and your rules.
Checkout
Buyers pay with Apple Pay in your merchants' hosted checkout, on the web and in iOS apps, with no card details to type. The encrypted payment goes to the card processor that handles it, such as Adyen, Stripe or Checkout.com.
How the connection works
Apple Pay has two sides in the platform: your cards go into Apple Wallet through your issuer processor and the network's token service, and checkout payments go through your card processor. Follow one card through both.
Add to Apple Wallet
In your app, the customer taps Add to Apple Wallet. With the entitlement Apple grants for this, the app passes the card's encrypted data from your issuer processor to Apple.
A device token
Once your processor approves the card for you, a Device Account Number is created for that iPhone, usually by the card network's token service. The card number itself is not stored on the device.
Pay at checkout
At a merchant using your checkout, the buyer picks Apple Pay, on the web or in the app, and confirms with Face ID, Touch ID or a passcode.
Encrypted to the processor
Apple returns a payment token encrypted for the merchant's payment processing certificate, and the card processor decrypts it and sends the authorisation.
Back to the issuer
The card network validates the token, translates it to the card account and routes the authorisation to your processor, where the module answers from the ledger.
Next to other wallets
Apple Pay sits next to Google Pay in both modules, and next to PayPal in the checkout. Customers on iPhone add your cards to Apple Wallet and those on Android to Google Wallet, from the same app.
At checkout, the Apple Pay button is the same whichever processor handles the payment, so card payments can move between processors without changing what buyers see or how merchants integrate.
When Apple Pay fits best
A strong fit when
- Many of your customers or your merchants' buyers use iPhones.
- You want a new card in use the moment it is issued, before the physical card arrives.
- Your merchants want a faster checkout, with no card details to type.
Also worth a look
- Google Pay, for customers and buyers on Android, in the same app and checkout.
- PayPal in the checkout, for buyers who prefer to pay from a PayPal account.
How we get you live
Apple's approval
For your cards, we help you through Apple's onboarding for card issuers with your processor, and request the in-app provisioning entitlement for your app.
The merchant side
For your checkout, we set up the merchant identifier, the payment processing certificate and domain verification, or let your card processor manage them.
The keys
Certificates and processor credentials go into your platform's secrets and nowhere else. Your apps never hold a private key.
A full test run
In-app and web payments run first in Apple Pay's sandbox, with test cards and sandbox tester accounts, before the first live card or payment.
