What Tap to Pay on iPhone is
Tap to Pay on iPhone is Apple's feature for accepting in-person contactless payments on an iPhone, with no extra hardware: debit and credit cards, Apple Pay and other digital wallets, Android ones included. Apple announced it in February 2022, starting in the United States, and now lists it in every EU country, the UK and the UAE, among others.
Apple does not process the payments. A payment service provider that supports the feature does: it supplies the certified terminal configuration loaded on the merchant's iPhone and processes what the iPhone reads. Transactions are encrypted and processed using the iPhone's Secure Element, and Apple says it does not store card numbers or PINs on its servers.
What it does in your platform
Card acquiring
Turns the merchant's own iPhone into the card terminal of your SoftPOS app. The customer taps a card or a phone, iOS reads it, the encrypted card data goes to your acquirer for authorisation, and the module records the payment in the ledger like any other.
How the connection works
Your SoftPOS app uses Apple's ProximityReader framework with a token from your payment provider. iOS reads the card, the encrypted result goes to the provider, and the module keeps the ledger and the backoffice in step.
The merchant is linked
Before the first payment, an administrator at the merchant accepts Apple's Tap to Pay on iPhone terms in your app, which links their merchant account.
The reader is prepared
Each time the app comes to the front, it prepares the reader with a token from your payment provider, so it is ready before the customer is.
The customer taps
The merchant sets the amount and any tip, and the customer holds a card or a phone near the iPhone. iOS returns the card data encrypted, to be sent to your provider.
The acquirer authorises
The encrypted data goes to your provider, which asks the card's issuer over the network. If the issuer asks for a PIN, the customer enters it on the iPhone.
Paid, and on record
The app shows the result and offers a digital receipt, and the payment goes into the ledger, matched later to the provider's settlement.
Next to other providers
Tap to Pay on iPhone serves merchants who use an iPhone. Merchants with Android phones take the same taps through the certified tap-on-phone kernel in the same app, and both kinds of payment go to the same acquirer, the same ledger and the same backoffice.
Which acquirer processes the taps depends on who supports Tap to Pay on iPhone in your merchants' countries. Apple publishes that list country by country, and Adyen, Stripe and Global Payments are on it in parts of Europe. Changing acquirer later does not change the app your merchants use.
When Tap to Pay on iPhone fits best
A strong fit when
- Your merchants already carry iPhones and want to take cards without a terminal.
- You want merchants to accept cards, Apple Pay and other wallets with nothing to install but your app.
- Your acquirer supports Tap to Pay on iPhone in the countries where your merchants trade.
Also worth a look
- The certified Android kernel in the same app, for merchants who use Android phones.
- An acquirer you already work with, if it supports Tap to Pay on iPhone in your markets: it becomes a connector too.
How we get you live
The acquirer
We help you choose an acquirer that supports Tap to Pay on iPhone in your merchants' countries, and get your account and contract with it in place.
Apple's approval
We help you request the Tap to Pay on iPhone entitlement from Apple for your app, and build the screens to Apple's design guidelines, ready for App Review.
The keys
Your acquirer's credentials stay in your platform's secrets. The app only receives the short-lived token it needs to prepare the reader.
A full test run
We run test payments end to end on real iPhones with your acquirer before your first merchant goes live.
